VAT On Domestic Fuel (No. 2)

EDM number 1878 in 1992-93, proposed by Andrew Welsh on 27/04/1993.

That this House condemns the failure at Social Security questions on 26th April of the Minister for Social Security and Disabled People to address the anger felt by pensioners and benefit claimants at the prospect of the additional burden on heating which they face as a result of the imposition of value-added tax on domestic fuel; believes his statement that 'the poorer people in our society will be protected from the impact of the increases' Official Report, column 720, offers cold comfort to the one in three pensioners eligible for income support who do not claim or to the many thousands struggling just above the threshold for income support; notes that pensioners and those on low incomes need face a winter of cold, hardship and hypothermia and that in 1991 one in every six deaths from hypothermmia in Great Britain was in Scotland; is alarmed that value-added tax on domestic fuel risks worsening an already intolerable situation; and condemns the additional burdens being imposed on the old and needy by this measure.

This motion has been signed by a total of 33 MPs.