Archives - July 2008
29 July 2008 - Message from Tony Lloyd MP and Manchester CAB
Tony Lloyd MP has joined forces with the Citizens Advice Bureau to persuade Manchester residents to act now in seeking advice about their true benefit entitlements and to get the money they are owed.
An astonishing £9.9 billion in means tested benefits went unclaimed last year affecting as many as 6 million people. Pension Credit, Housing Benefit, Council Tax Benefit and Working Tax Credit in particular are all currently massively under claimed.
Tony Lloyd MP said, "People reading this are entitled to more support and it could be you! We hope that this campaign will encourage more people to claim and that we can help put money back into the pockets of Manchester Central residents. Too many people are missing out on money that is rightfully theirs."
Manchester Citizens Advice Bureau said, "Many people assume they won’t qualify and others can be put off by the prospect of making a claim. But claiming can be simple and we urge anyone who is unsure about their entitlements or who would like help making a claim to visit their local Citizens Advice Bureau to get a free confidential benefit check."
What people could gain:
- The average weekly amount of pension credit currently going unclaimed is £28.40, enough to make a huge difference for someone living on a low and fixed income.
- Those struggling to pay their council tax bills could benefit from claiming council tax benefit- the average currently going unclaimed is £12.90 a week.
- An adult working 30 hours a week earning the minimum wage could boost their income by up to almost £1,700 a year by claiming working tax credit.
- Almost a million people are missing out on £2,280 million of unclaimed Housing benefit. Around half of working people entitled to housing benefit but do not claim.
08 July 2008 - Tony welcomes Pakistan's new High commissioner
Tony met with the new High commissioner of Pakistan at a reception on 5th July.
Tony said, "I would like to welcome the new High commissioner to Manchester, he is a good friend of Manchester and the United Kingdom. It is important that we maintain our very important ties with Pakistan, not only because of the shared cultural heritage of many Manchester residents, but because of the positive benefit it provides the country in numerous general respects."
05 July 2008 - NHS 60th Anniversary
Pictured here is Gemma McKendry and newborn twins Summer and Skye, who were the first babies to be born on July 5th at St Mary's Hospital.
Speaking in Parliament on 3 July Mr Lloyd said, "Sixty years on, it is difficult for many of us to understand and make sense of what life was like for the poor who were sick before the NHS came into being in 1948. In those years, friends of mine saw their children die because they could not afford the health care that is taken for granted today. People lived their lives embittered because they lost children in the time before there was an NHS, when people relied on private medicine. The ramifications were dreadful, and great distress was caused to millions of people because there was no NHS.
"I want to pay tribute to the nurses, doctors and other medical staff for the contribution they have made over those 60 years; they are there in people's hour of need. I also want to pay tribute, however, to people such as those in the ambulance service and the porters, the builders and even the bureaucrats, whom it is so easy to deride, but without whom the health service would not work."