Pensioners should claim ‘Just desserts’ – MP
North Cornwall’s MP, Dan Rogerson, visited Age Concern in Bude this week, to support ‘Your Rights Week’, an annual campaign to get older people to claim the benefits to which they are entitled.
Age Concern hopes that pensioners across the UK will take up to £100m in unclaimed Council Tax Benefit, Pension Credit, Housing Benefit, Attendance Allowance, Disability Living Allowance and Carer's Allowance.
The Bude group assists older people with transport, benefits advice and gardening. The local Liberal Democrat MP held an impromptu surgery at the centre to deal with the problems some of his constituents were having with their pensions and in the health service.
Commenting after the visit, Mr Rogerson said:
“Age Concern clearly does invaluable work both nationally and here in Bude. The Your Rights campaign is especially important as the Government moves towards more and more means-testing on the benefits pensioners can receive.
“Unfortunately all too often, pensioners have to fill in reams of forms, or engage in long telephone conversations about their personal circumstances in order to claim their just deserts.
“Council Tax Benefit is by a long way one of the most unclaimed types of assistance available, and until such time as Ministers accept that the Council Tax should be scrapped altogether, it can be of real value to people struggling to pay.
“I’ll be keeping in touch with Age Concern, and taking up the issues raised with me in the surgery that I ran this morning.
“Meantime, I hope everyone will look carefully at the benefits they could claim. Older people have done a great deal for our country – many fought to ensure its freedom – so now it’s only right that those same people get the financial help they need.”
Notes to Editors
- Bude Age Concern can be contacted on 01288 355008
- A picture of Mr Rogerson’s visit is available from Paul Hamlyn
