Duncan Hames finds 9,000 Wiltshire pensioners missing out on Cold Weather Payments

12.00.00am GMT Fri 15th Jan 2010

9,000 Wiltshire pensioners will miss out on Cold Weather Payments triggered by the recent weather, according to analysis of Government figures by the Liberal Democrats.

Cold Weather Payments of £25 a week are paid to people on low incomes who receive a qualifying benefit, such as Pension Credit, which goes unclaimed by as many as 1.7m pensioners, 9,000 of them in Wiltshire.

Prospective Lib Dem MP for Chippenham, Duncan Hames said:

"It is a dreadfully unfair that Wiltshire pensioners on the breadline are missing out on these payments, worth nearly quarter of a million pounds a week.

"Fuel prices are at an all time high, making Cold Weather Payments all the more important to people already struggling on a poor pension. Local pensioners this weekend have told me what a difference these payments make to them when I have called by to visit.

"Labour has failed pensioners by creating a complicated system that makes it difficult for them to get the help they desperately need. The Government should be making every effort to identify pensioners who are missing out and get them this extra cash."