00:00Diolch, Acting Presiding Officer.
00:02What is the Welsh Government doing to support pensioners who will lose their winter fuel
00:06payments?
00:07Thank you for the question.
00:08We are ensuring people in Wales, including pensioners, claim every pound to which they
00:12are entitled.
00:13Our Claim What's Yours advice link Cymru helpline is helping pensioners to find out
00:18and access financial support, including pension credit.
00:23Thank you for your answer, Cabinet Secretary.
00:24Putting political differences aside, I don't think anyone in this Chamber can question
00:28your commitment to improve social justice in Wales.
00:32However, the callous act by the UK Labour Government to remove the winter fuel support
00:37for an estimated 500,000 pensioners is nothing short of shameful.
00:43You have said yourself that it will push people into fuel poverty, and your own party stated
00:48that 4,000 pensioners could die because of this decision.
00:52You may blame the previous UK Government, but this is a political choice made by the
00:56UK Labour Government.
00:59This policy is the single biggest attack on our pensioners in a generation.
01:03So, Cabinet Secretary, will the Welsh Government look to implement its own version of the winter
01:08fuel support to make sure that those people who helped build the communities that we all
01:13live in are supported this winter?
01:15Jane Hutt AM, Deputy Presiding Officer.
01:16Well, thank you, James Evans.
01:17I'm sorry, we can't put politics aside, can we, in terms of why we are in this situation,
01:23why the new Labour Government in Westminster is in this situation, in this regrettable
01:29situation?
01:30No, we can't put politics aside after 14 years of austerity, and I remember that 2010 austerity
01:37budget.
01:38I was actually the finance Minister, and the shock it was going to have.
01:44Cutting benefits—that was one of the main ways they were going to recoup the money that
01:50they wanted to address through their austerity measures.
01:55So, you can't put politics aside, except that I will say, again, I give my commitment today
02:00to ensure that we can do everything we can.
02:03We've had some good exchange already about ways in which we can support emergency support
02:09to households, particularly our pensioners, and I will refer again to our Welsh benefits
02:14charter.
02:15We launched it in January.
02:17It does actually tell us how we can deliver benefits governed by the Welsh Government.
02:22It's a key part of our work to help people.
02:26And all 22 local authorities have signed up to this, and I believe we are working towards
02:32a coherent, simplified Welsh benefits system as a result of the launch of that charter.
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