Budget offers little to help pensioners with rising costs of living

Millions of pensioners will struggle to find anything in the Budget that will really help them meet the rising costs of living or make the difficult choice of whether to eat or heat. After 5 years of refusing to increase the winter fuel allowance, the government has finally been forced by growing pressure to give a small increase - but it is unlikely to be enough to stop the rising scale of fuel poverty amongst older people or end the scandalous number of winter deaths amongst the over 60s.

Around 2.2m pensioner households already spend more than 10% of their income on fuel bills - and an extra £50 just won't keep up with the huge increases that have recently been announced by the energy companies. The Chancellor's decision not to give an across the board rise of £100 to all pensioners is also likely to back fire. No-one can seriously believe that a 79-year-old's fuel bill is any less than that of an 80-year-old, and it's about time all pensioner households were getting a £400 winter fuel allowance.

What is more significant about the Budget, is what the Chancellor didn't say. Pensioners are furious with the government's refusal to improve the state pension. Britain continues to have the least adequate state pension in Europe and the promise to restore the link with earnings is still at least 4 years away, by which time 3m of today's pensioners will have died. Failing to mention this or the need to address the rising council tax faced by millions of older households will once again leave Britain's pensioners feeling like they're the forgotten generation. Come the general election, the grey vote may well look elsewhere.