Early evening summary
Keir Starmer has been accused of spreading “misinformation” after he told MPs at PMQs that 90% of women affected by the rise in the state pension age knew it was happening. (See 3.19pm.) He was responding to complaints from opposition and Labour MPs about the government’s decision not to compensate the Waspi woman. Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, later became the most senior figure in the party to say the government had made a mistake. In an interview, Sarwar said the government should offer some sort of compensation. (See 4.24pm.) But Starmer told MPs that “the taxpayer simply can’t afford the burden of tens of billions of pounds of compensation”. (See 12.34pm.)
Poor areas will benefit much more than richer areas from the local government settlement announced today, the Institute for Fiscal Studies thinktank has said. (See 5.47pm.)
Wes Streeting, the health secretary, has has challenged the idea that some pensioners could die due to changes to the winter fuel allowance. Giving evidence to the Commons health committee, Streeting insisted pensioners will “still be better off this winter than they were last winter”. Asked about a 2017 Labour party estimate that 4,000 people could die if the then government removed the winter fuel allowance. Streeting replied:
Because of the choices that the chancellor has made, particularly on protecting the state pension through the triple lock – even taking into account the decisions she’s taken on winter fuel allowance – pensioners will still be better off this winter than they were last winter, and will be better off next winter further still.
And of course, one of the reasons it gives me confidence to stand by that assertion is she has protected winter fuel allowance for the poorest pensioners and put in place financial support, which I think will make a real difference to people.
County councils, which tend to be more prosperous (and more Conservative) than other local authorities, have reached much the same conclusion on the local government settlement as the IFS. (See 5.47pm.) This is from Barry Lewis, finance spokesperson and vic chair fo the County Councils Network.
While we welcome the government providing a further £200m for social care, today’s provisional local government finance settlement confirms our fears that the government is unfairly cherry picking which councils deserve the greatest financial support next year.
By targeting the £600m Recovery Grant on metropolitan and urban councils, the government is ignoring the fact deprivation is not the only driver of councils’ costs nor the key indicator of which councils are under the most financial distress. Instead, it is demand and market failure across adult and children’s social care and special educational needs services that are pushing councils in all regions and of political control to the brink.
