CHRIS Shepherd (Lib Dem, Freshbrook and Grange Park) has launched a crusade to ensure the 6,000 pensioners living across Swindon obtain the Govern- ment's new pension credit.
He has also called on Swindon Council to take note of the delay and hardship experienced by many Swin-don families in the implementation of the new child tax credit.
Speaking at Thursday's Full Council meeting, Coun Shepherd congratulated the borough's Early Years Development Team on successfully signing up some 3,809 families for the child tax credit.
However, an estimated million families in the UK have missed the deadline to claim full tax credit this year, leaving £5,000 million in unclaimed credits.
Coun Shepherd said the council must learn from this lesson and urged its officers to work closely with Age Concern, Citizens' Advice Bureau and the Pension Service to ensure that all Swindon residents, who were entitled to the new pension credit, did in fact receive it.
He has also approached council chief executive, Simon Birch, and asked him to petition pensions minister, Malcolm Wicks and Swindon's two MPs to ensure that the Government did everything it can to maximise the take up of the new pension credit.
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