A UNITED pensioner community came out to welcome Mayor Lutfur Rahman’s winter fuel payment last week. The launch was held to mark fue the day when letters were sent out to pensioners eligible to claim the Council’s payment.
Mayor Rahman was joined at the launch by Deputy Mayor Cllr Maium Talukdar, Cllr Saied Ahmed and Cllr Gulam Kibria Choudhury. “We are all committed to ensuring that our community stays warm and well supported throughout the winter,” said Cllr Talukdar.
Mayor Rahman introduced the payment after Keir Starmer brought in means testing of the Winter Fuel Allowance, which had previously been a universal benefit. This left millions of pensioners missing out just as the cold weather set in. Pensioners who receive a Council letter should take it to any Post Office, where they will be able to collect their cash payment of £175.
Mayor Lutfur Rahman announced the payment at the Council meeting on 2nd October. This is thought to have made Tower Hamlets Council the first Council to have announced direct help for pensioners who have been taken out of the national scheme.
Having already invested in a new youth service and making up for government cuts in benefits to 16-18 year olds in education and those at university, it seems that Mayor Rahman is now focussing on older members of the community. “Warm hubs” are running at Idea Stores where pensioners can spend their days in the warm, with a hot drink and others to talk to.
At the November Council meeting, Mayor Lutfur Rahman, who described his Winter Fuel Payments as a token of “respect and appreciation” of the pensioner community, announced that his Administration has more plans. He will be looking to re-introducing Meals on Wheels, cut by Labour’s John Biggs, and boosting Luncheon Clubs. Further measures will be announced in the new year.
Where Keir Starmer has united UK pensioners in opposing his introduction of means testing of the previously universal Winter Field Allowance, Mayor Lutfur Rahman seems to have united the different wings of the pensioner community in Tower Hamlets in support of his policies. As the Mayor handed out warm kits to pensioners at the launch, his approach was praised by Ali, a frequent and admiring user of the warm hubs; Carol Abbott, who has organised pensioner groups in the borough; and Maggie Phillips, Chair of the St John’s Tenants and Residents Association (TRA).
Starmer has also left the local Labour Party at odds with his policy. A Labour motion to the October Council called on the Mayor to campaign against their own Government’s cuts. Other London Councils to have stepped up and offered some help to pensioners include two Labour Councils – Wandsworth and Barking & Dagenham – as well as Lib-Dem Sutton. In a recent leaflet, the local Labour Party called on residents to tell Mayor Rahman to “get a grip”: it seems that the pensioner community is quite happy that Mayor Rahman has a firm grip on the tiller and is steering the Council in the right direction.
●A lone BBC journalist was left to try to spoil the atmosphere. He told Mayor Lutfur Rahman that there had been past concerns about how Tower Hamlets Council spent its money. Mayor Rahman had to point out that while he had been Mayor, the Council had had a balanced budget. The Mayor tactfully refrained that in the seven years that the Labour Mayor had been in office, council auditors had not signed the Council’s accounts. It seems that the journalist had not had time to do his homework.
●Read more about it: More stories about Mayor Lutfur Rahman