Rise fails to keep pace with bills, says Help the Aged

Pensioners will receive more help with heating bills next winter after Alistair Darling announced yesterday that cold weather payments for the over-60s will rise by £50 to £250 and by £100 to £400 for the over-80s.

The one-off payments - paid annually in early December - would "build on the government's substantial commitment to help pensioners", the chancellor said.

However, Help the Aged condemned the budget as failing to meet the needs of the elderly.

"This was a budget that simply hasn't delivered enough for older people struggling with the soaring cost of living," said the charity's spokesman, Mervyn Kohler.

"Fuel bills, water rates, council tax and even food and other basics are all increasing way beyond the pitiful rises in the basic state pension and pension credit. As a result, more older people will face tough choices over the course of this year when what was hoped for was genuine action on pensioner poverty."

When the winter fuel level was first introduced in 2002-03, it paid for half the typical heating bill, Kohler said. But now, even with the increase, it was between 25 and 40%.

He said pensioners should be helped with energy-saving measures such as cavity wall and loft insulation rather than being given extra money to burn more fuel.

"What we really want is a energy-efficiency package - not encouraging people to burn more fuel in what should be a greener world. This one-off increase in the winter fuel payment is nothing more than a sticking plaster which will fail to help pensioners over the long term."

Pensions minister, Mike O'Brien, said: "The winter fuel allowance increase would pay for most of the rise in power bills. It is also a rise for pensioners when many other groups are missing out in a very tight budget."