SDLP Foyle MLA Mark H Durkan has said that pensioners across Northern Ireland will suffer following an Executive decision to means test the winter fuel payment.
The Executive announced the move on Friday afternoon, after the UK Government announced their adoption of the policy last month.
Said the Foyle MLA: “The Executive has tried to dress up this decision as one to ‘maintain parity with the rest of the UK’.
“But make no mistake, they had the power not to introduce this punitive and punishing measure in the North but didn’t take it.
“Now thousands of pensioners will suffer as a result. The decision taken by the UK Government last month was the wrong one and the one taken by the Executive today is just as bad.
“Every winter hundreds of old people here die because of the cold weather and related conditions.
“Many others struggle to heat their homes, wrapping themselves in blankets and heavy clothing in an attempt to keep warm.
“I have even heard stories of pensioners forced to stay in bed all day because they simply can’t afford to turn the heating on. Surely our older generation deserve better than this.
“We are all aware of the difficult financial situation facing the Executive since the institutions were restored, but they have repeatedly shown themselves incapable of taking a decision and this is just the latest example.
“It will not be lost on people that after weeks of confusion and concern from our older community that this was announced late on a Friday afternoon.
“An Executive who lay the blame for everything at the door of the UK Government offers nothing and older people need more than words of opposition from those who they trust to keep them safe.
“It’s time for the Executive to take responsibility for the decisions they make.”
