Focus on child poverty after government u-turns on winter fuel payment

PLUS: A care home is warned to take action after a Bispham pensioner choked on his food after an unseen fall

Hello and welcome to The Blackpool Lead.

Children in Blackpool grow up with less simply because of where they were born. This isn’t contestable as a point - it’s a fact.

So while the government’s decision to u-turn over the winter fuel payment has been welcomed - though some are concerned over the new thresholds - it does little to help Blackpool’s child poverty problem. And, while the electorate may disagree, it’s easy to make the argument that families are more in need than pensioners in 2025 Britain.

One Blackpool MP knows this - and wants to see the two-child benefit cap scrapped. That’s the focus of today’s edition.

But we also have a long-read on a Blackpool care home subject to a letter warning of future deaths from assistant coroner Andrew Cousins. The care home has not responded with much in the way of contrition.

It’s an important read and one we hope you’ll consider signing up to digest in full.

“We cannot allow Blackpool children to grow up with less because of where they were born”

Chris Webb at one of his pensioner surgeries

By Luke Beardsworth

A Blackpool MP has praised the government’s decision to u-turn on winter fuel payment after the threshold was changed to include an extra 7.5 million people.

All pensioners with an income of £35,000 or less will have their winter fuel payment restored in full after Rachel Reeves responded to public pressure over arguably the government’s most unpopular policy.

Chris Webb, MP for Blackpool South, had spoken out against the policy repeatedly saying he had promised not to do anything that would make his constituents poorer.

Webb said: “I’m delighted to see the Government has listened to concerns and changed course on Winter Fuel Payments, extending support to pensioners on incomes of £35,000 or less.

“When this policy was first announced, I was one of a number of MPs who spoke out against it, arguing that the threshold was too low and would leave many vulnerable pensioners without the help they need.

“I’m pleased that my concerns, and those of many others, have been taken on board.

“This change will make a real difference to many pensioners in Blackpool who were worried about how they’d pay the bills this upcoming winter.

“I’ll continue to always put Blackpool first and fight for policies that support our community’s most vulnerable residents.”

There have, however, been questions raised over whether the government has focused on the right issues to lift people out of poverty.

Economists have argued that the two-child benefit cap is contributing to poverty to a greater extent than the planned threshold for the winter fuel payment would ever have done.

Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said: “It wouldn’t even be in the top 100 of things that I would do with my £1.25bn if I wanted to act on poverty.

“Almost none of the people impacted by this will be in poverty. Most of them will be at least as well-off as the average in the population. We know that poverty is much worse among families with children than it is with pensioners.”

Around 43.7% of children in Blackpool were living in poverty in 2022-23, which is up 11.6% since 2015.

But Webb, who had been carrying out surgeries with pensioners to ensure they received money to which they were entitled, believes the u-turn shows a government is willing to take seriously the concerns from MPs in more challenged constituencies like Blackpool South.

He will be hoping for similar movements on the two-child benefit cap, introduced by David Cameron in 2015, but critics believe further tax increases are likely as the government softens its stance on payments for the vulnerable.

Webb told The Blackpool Lead: “In Blackpool we have some of the highest levels in the country – it’s a daily reality for almost half of our children. Child poverty is an urgent priority for me.

“To lift families out of poverty for good, we need to rebuild the systems that support them. That starts with restoring our social security system to a level families can actually live on. Increasing the child element of Universal Credit by just £15 a week would give targeted help to those who need it most, lifting many children out of poverty immediately.

“We also need to scrap the two-child limit – a policy that has punished parents for the size of their family. Removing it would lift 300,000 children out of poverty and reduce hardship for 700,000 more.

“We cannot allow another generation of Blackpool’s children to grow up with less – less food, less stability, less hope – simply because of where they were born. Blackpool children deserve better and I’ll continue fighting for them every day in Parliament.”

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Care home blasts coroner after letter warning over potential for future deaths

By Michael Holmes

Glenroyd Care Home

A Bispham pensioner died from pneumonia after choking on food at Blackpool Victoria Hospital following an unseen fall at a care home, an inquest has been told.