Dear Mr Kinnock,
Thank you for your letter of 17 November about the problems of elderly people in the winter months.
I am glad you recognise the very positive steps we are taking to minimise the risks to elderly people during the winter. The publicity campaign which Nicholas Scott launched on 17 November is an excellent example of cooperation between the Government and the voluntary sector. There are many practical self-help measures which people can take to avoid the effect of cold weather. Our campaign aims to draw together the best information and make it readily accessible.
This Government established the first properly based scheme of cash help for exceptionally cold weather. Over 950,000 people were helped last winter, more than twice as many as in the previous year. We intend to improve the scheme further this winter by providing for one successful claim to cover all subsequent periods of exceptionaly cold weather.
But that scheme is only a very small part of the total help given with heating costs. This Government has extended automatic heating additions to vulnerable groups such as the elderly and disabled. Expenditure on heating addition alone totally some £430 million in 1985/86—£140 million more in real terms than was spent in 1978/79. It is this regular [end p1] weekly help—paid throughout the year—which gives people the reassurance they need that they will be able to meet their fuel bills.
I am quite unable to accept your criticisms of the Government's programme for insulation and draughtproofing. It was this Government which introduced a 90 per cent grant for low income households into the Homes Insulation Scheme in 1980, and we have announced plans to extend eligibility for this grant by about 60 per cent. And, whereas there were fewer than half a dozen Community Insulation Projects in 1979, we backed an expansion of the scheme to the extent that there are now over 400 projects, and over 400,000 low income homes have been draughtproofed.
Finally, I am surprised that you should continue to maintain—in the face of the facts—that the Government are not giving pensioners a fair deal. You persistently ignore the fact that what counts is pensioners' actual incomes. Between 1979 and 1985 pensioners' total incomes grew on average by 2.7 per cent a year in real terms compared with just over 0.6 per cent a year during Labour's last period in office.
We have protected both state pension and other income by increasing pensions in line with inflation and by controlling inflation itself. This is a realistic policy which has proved to be of real value to pensioners. We are proud of the results, and we will continue to do all we can to protect pensioners' interests.
Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher