‘Frozen and forgotten’ pensioners protest in London

A pensioner has teamed up with charity Independent Age to raise awareness about pensioners struggling during the winter.

Transcript

00:00Turning on the heating was once standard practice for many pensioners during

00:06winter months but today it has become a luxury that many can no longer afford.

00:12According to a recent study this winter just 23% of pensioners will not have

00:17turned their heating on. One of them is 68 year old Rob from Cornwall who is

00:22working with the charity Independent Age to raise awareness for the dangers of

00:27cold homes and what they pose to older people. To shine a light on this urgent

00:33issue the charity has unveiled a striking eye sculpture of Rob symbolising

00:38pensioners on low incomes facing these conditions. The sculpture depicting Rob

00:43sitting in a cold home will be placed right here in London to highlight how

00:48many people feel frozen and forgotten. So the eye sculpture is of our campaigner

00:54Rob and he lives on a low income and he's just over the threshold to receive

00:58pension credit so he's living on low income he's making really tough choices

01:01during these colder months and the eye sculpture is here to represent that

01:04there are two million people in a similar situation to Rob all making

01:07decisions where they can't turn heating on they can't use warm water they can't

01:11use their cookers all to save money so we're here to draw attention to that.

01:15And we're still trying to highlight the fact that a lot of people a lot of

01:20pensioners are living in poverty and with the loss of the winter fuel

01:24allowance etc you know people are deciding whether to turn the heating on

01:28or whether they eat and this depiction of me here is to show that people are

01:35freezing cold and it highlights the fact that although I don't wear a hat

01:44this is me. Well I had the winter fuel allowance for a couple of years it was

01:50250 pounds which I was very grateful for and I put it straight into a

01:54housekeeping account so that it was there for what it was meant to be.

02:02An awful lot of people didn't need it but in this sweeping change that was made the same

02:09week that he announced a 15% pay rise for train drivers who are on sixty

02:14seventy thousand pounds a year they took away 250 pounds from pensioners who've

02:19worked all their lives paid their national insurance paid their tax and we

02:23just seem to be forgotten. Every person I've spoken to be it here or be it at

02:29home have been disgusted and supportive and a lot of support towards me so you

02:41know because I've got a voice now and I tell my story and I'm trying to get

02:49people to see sense that with the reduction in well with the annihilation

02:54of the winter fuel allowance I can guarantee you there's going to be people

02:58dying through cold.