Gas engineer offers pensioners free boiler service

Val Merrill, 84, described her free boiler service as "marvellous"

A pensioner whose boiler was serviced for free by a local tradesman says she cannot believe there is someone willing to do "something for nothing".

Gas engineer Tommy Tatton wanted to give back to older members of his community, and has offered free servicing to people about to lose their winter fuel payment.

One, Val Merrill, 84, from Sandbach, Cheshire, said the payment cut remained a hot topic of conversation for people her age.

"Everybody's on about it," she said. "You just stand in the bus queue and they say, 'How are we going to manage without this money?'."

Mrs Merrill's boiler was serviced after her daughter saw Mr Tatton's offer on Facebook.

"When we rang up he said, 'Oh yes, I'll come round' and I thought it was marvellous," she said.

Mr Tatton described it as a "buzz" to give something back to those in need and hoped other gas engineers would also offer a helping hand.

He said: "I can save a couple of hours a week, I can give that back to somebody. Why not help people who have just lost out?."

Mrs Merrill is very grateful for what he is doing, especially because she is one of more than 10 million pensioners losing out on government support this winter.

"I'll definitely be affected by it," she explained. "It means a lot. I mean £300 could pay your bill, couldn't it? And more."

She said she was surprised by Labour's decision in early September to remove the payment.

"I thought they we're going to do wonders for us when this new government came in but evidently not, and the pensioners are the first to lose something," she said.

'Very civic-minded'

A spokesperson insisted the government was "committed to supporting pensioners".

"Millions [are] set to see their state pension rise by £1,700 this parliament, through our commitment to the triple lock,” they said.

“Over a million pensioners will still receive the winter fuel payment, and our drive to boost pension credit take-up has already seen a 152% increase in claims.

“Many others will also benefit from the £150 warm home discount... while our extension of the household support fund will help with the cost of food, heating and bills.”

Mrs Merrill's MP Sarah Russell said she applauded Mr Tatton's "kind offer", which is a "very civic-minded thing to do".

"Although it's no longer financially feasible to award winter fuel payments to everyone over pension age regardless of need, I'm doing what I can to ensure support gets to the most vulnerable," she said.

"I’ll be running events in the constituency to help people check their eligibility for and apply for pension credit, and other help such as the household support fund."