Corri Wilson Writes Why Alba Are Standing Up For Pensioners

At the weekend,  Alba Party Leader Alex Salmond called on the Scottish Government to stand up for pensioners in Scotland by mounting a legal challenge at the Court of Session against the UK Government’s decision to introduce means testing for the Winter Fuel Payment. This followed legal advice received by leading Scots lawyer and Solicitor Advocate Mike Dailly.

The decision announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves MP on 29 July and confirmed by the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Shirley-Anne Somerville MSP on 14 August, in relation to the devolved benefit, the Pension Age Winter Heating Payment which is set to replace Winter Fuel Payments in Scotland, will end universal entitlement for 900,000 Scots pensioners.  

It's simply poor politics for the Scottish Government to decimate nearly every budget line instead of standing firm and ensuring that winter fuel payments for Scottish pensioners are not removed against their will.

A legal challenge would be based on the UK Government not having carried out the necessary Equality Impact Assessment under the Equality Act 2010 which specifies both Age and Disability as “protected characteristics”.

The decision to means-test the Winter Fuel Payment and the successor benefit in Scotland, the Pension Age Winter Heating Payment is a cruel blow to pensioners in Scotland.  This will not only see hundreds of thousands of pensioners who are already living in fuel poverty, deprived of a vital financial life line of up to £300 a year, and alarmingly, it creates the very real prospect of more Scots pensioners dying this winter through Excess Winter Deaths. 

As Principal Solicitor and Solicitor Advocate at the Govan Law Centre Mike Dailly, said, there is at the very least a Prima facie case for the Scottish Government to mount a legal challenge against the UK Government.  The speed of the announcement, a mere three weeks after coming into office, as well as the fact, that the Chancellor said that this was an emergency measure necessitated by the fiscal position which she inherited from the previous government, would both lead you to conclude that the proper process of evaluation and equality impact assessment has not taken place.  The lack of a thorough and detailed Equality Impact Assessment would be a clear breach of the Equality Act 2010 and would call into question the legal validity of this announcement. 

That is why Alba have challenged the UK Government to confirm if they have carried out the Equality Impact Assessment which the Equality Act 2010 requires them to do and the Scottish Government needs to set out the steps which they have taken to have the UK Government reverse this decision. 

Mike Dailly is one of Scotland’s most respected lawyers and a fearless campaigner for justice on behalf of people living in our most deprived communities, we should listen to his opinion, that’s why Alba has called on the Scottish Government to use its offices to seek a judicial review at the Court of Session against the UK Government’s decision to effectively end Winter Fuel Payments for 900,000 Scots pensioners. 

Mr Dailly’s advice confirms that as well as there being an overwhelming moral case against this decision, given the potential threat to life, which it represents through an increase in Excess Winter Deaths this winter, there is a legal case which must now be tested.

It is a matter of real concern that this decision has been announced with no prior warning.  There was a reasonable expectation on the part of pensioners themselves, as well as the Scottish Government that this benefit would be paid this coming Winter.

In addition, it is unthinkable that any thorough Equality Impact Assessment would not show firstly, that older people are at greater risk of health complications and death as a result of this decision and secondly that older disabled people and older people with underlying health conditions will see their health made worse, as a consequence of this benefit being withdrawn.

It is therefore vital that we know, if the UK Government and its relevant departments have carried out an Equality Impact Assessment and to publish in full the findings from any such assessment.

Instead of pursuing a series of failed and discredited legal misadventures in the Scottish Courts, the Scottish Government should instead use the clear opportunity presented to at least try and stop this measure in its tracks. If they do so they’ll have succeeded in in inflicting a defeat against the new Labour Government and a victory for the pensioners of Scotland. 

Alba know that the campaign to ensure economic justice for pensioners is bigger than any one party, that is why we will seek to work cross party with politicians in both Holyrood and Westminster to place this decision at the very top of the political agenda and to amplify the public outcry and political pressure which is building against this decision.