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Benefits Uprating

I thank my hon. Friend for his comments. I am certainly very proud to be part of a Government who are the first in our history to break the link between old age and poverty. People over 65 are now no more likely to face poverty than any other generation or age cohort in our society. That is a substantial achievement. I am also proud that instead of spending a mere £60 million on helping pensioners with their fuel bills—the situation we inherited in 1997—we now spend £2.7 billion a year on that, because of the introduction of the winter fuel payment.