Dear All,
I'm delighted that the Government are finally listening! Thanks to all your petition signatures, emails to your MP and chats on the doorsteps, they've realised that this fight isn't over.
If you haven't already seen, yesterday, the Prime Minister confirmed that the Government will be making more pensioners eligible for the Winter Fuel Payment. I actually talked about it on the BBC (listen from 46:32).
Small actions add up and, together, we were impossible to ignore. Thanks for campaigning with me past the winter, and I hope you'll stick with me now.
There are 2.5 million pensioners missing out on the Winter Fuel Payment that desperately need it. And the Government's changes must help these people before next winter - just six months away.
I'm hopeful that this winter might not be as bad as last year has been for too many of our community, but at the moment it's not clear when this change will come in and who it will help.
We need to see more detail before we can judge how good this announcement is for struggling pensioners, but it's a step in the right direction for now.
I'll be working with my colleagues to make sure that the Government make changes in the best way possible for struggling pensioners. We're ready to help and to advise Ministers, drawing on what we've heard from you, and on our own analysis of what would make the most difference.
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