Low-income pensioners in Oxfordshire are a step closer to receiving extra support through the winter after critics described "withdrawing" hundreds of pounds from people as "profoundly wrong".

Conservative Eddie Reeves, leader of the opposition, presented a motion to Oxfordshire County Council in response to winter fuel payments introduced by the Labour government, during a full council meeting on Tuesday at County Hall. 

He called for the cabinet to works with NHS, district councils, and civic groups to support low-income pensioners who will not meet the criteria for means-tested winter fuel payments and address fuel poverty.

The motion also asked Liz Leffman, the Liberal Democrat leader of the council, to write to the Labour chancellor Rachel Reeves calling for an impact assessment and transitional measures for low-income pensioners.

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It was passed with amendments from the Liberal Democrats.  

A file image of a pensioner looking at her bills A file image of a pensioner looking at her bills (Image: iStockphoto) In his opening speech to the council Mr Reeves said that Labour had turned the issue of winter fuel payments into a “policy device” that has been “deeply divisive”.

He added: “Pensioners are not there to be made a political point of.

“Withdrawing £300 from a pensioner earning as little as £13,000 every year is profoundly wrong. 117,611 pensioners in this county stand to lose their payments.

“£13,000 is not the level that this means tests should apply.”

Eddie Reeves, leader of the opposition Eddie Reeves, leader of the opposition (Image: Eddie Reeves) The council’s Labour group called for amendments to the motion but Mr Reeves did not accept this.

Councillor Brad Baines, who proposed Labour’s amendment, said: “I am frankly staggered that the Conservatives can bring this motion to council.”

He added that the Conservatives “have left this country a terrible financial inheritance” and that Mr Reeves was “choosing to make pensioners a political football”.

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Labour councillor Duncan Enright, who supported the amendment, said West Oxfordshire District Council has written to pensioners encouraging them to apply for pension credit, after a motion similar to the Labour amendment passed through at their council.

Duncan Enright Duncan Enright (Image: WODC) After a heated debate between Labour and Conservative members, the Labour amendment was defeated, receiving 13 votes for, 37 votes against and one abstention.

Mr Reeves accepted the first Lib Dem amendment without debate, which removed reference to the creation of an Oxfordshire Winter Fuel Payment Protection Fund and instead focus on “strengthening existing high-demand support programs”, such as the Resident Support Scheme (RSS) and Better Housing Better Health.

Liberal Democrat Dan Levy, who proposed the amendment, told the meeting: “It was important to amend the motion and depoliticise the whole thing.

“We are talking about real residents and their needs. There are many residents in Oxfordshire who will be affected by this.”

Green councillor Ian Middleton said: “It’s sending shivers down their spine in all senses of the word. Campaign groups say it could cost thousands of lives.

“Whatever the true figures are, one death is one too many.”

The Liberal Democrat amendment passed through the council with 35 votes in favour, 13 against and no abstentions. It will now go to the cabinet for official approval.