Last week, the BBC announced that the TV licence concession for over-75s will be linked to Pension Credit in future. The 2017 Tory manifesto promised to protect the free TV licence for over 75s for the duration of this Parliament – until 2022. That promise has now been broken.
It is an outrage that this Government is overseeing the scrapping of free TV licences for 3 million older people, leaving a Tory manifesto promise in tatters. There are over 9000 pensioners in Reading West and they have been let down by this government.
In the same week that Boris Johnson has championed tax cuts for the rich, this Conservative Government has delivered yet another ruthless welfare cut to some of the most vulnerable people in our society.
I challenge all Tory leadership candidates to honour the commitment they made in 2017. You cannot means test for social isolation. You cannot means test for loneliness. Millions of elderly and isolated people will lose because of this announcement – Labour will fight it with everything we’ve got and I challenge Alok Sharma MP on standing up for pensioners.
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