Citizens Advice in Oxfordshire say more people accessing pension credit

It's now been over 100 days since the General Election.

Author: Andrea FoxPublished 14th Oct 2024

Citizens Advice in Oxfordshire say they've seen more people accessing pension credit that they didn't know they were eligible for.

Sunday 13th October marked 100 days since the General Election. Since then, one of Labours biggest decisions has been to cut winter fuel payments

Pat Coomber-Wood is Chief Exec at Citizens advice for Cherwell. She's urging people to claim before the end of the month:

"If you are eligible to pension credits you should be accessing them as you will still get the winter fuel payment."

You can apply by contacting the Department for Work and Pensions or Citizens Advice.

Pat also says the government should focus on living standards and poverty to help relieve pressure on people with the cost of living currently:

"We're seeing that almost 1 in 10 people are in a negative budget, which means that despite having access to all the income that they can either through income and employment or benefits, they still don't have enough to make ends meet."

She's urging the new Labour government to help people with the cost of living:

"For people on the ground they're probably not feeling much difference, we're still seeing a lot of people struggling to make ends meet even with the change in government, and the cost of living continues to hit hard.

We're still seeing prices going up and we're seeing people falling behind with mortgage, rent and other important bills."

This month the government will lay out plans for the economy in the Budget whilst today (Monday 14th October) The Prime Minister Keir Starmer is expected to unveil deals worth billions of pounds at his first International Investment Summit in London.

They'll be focused on AI, life sciences and infrastructure.

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