'It's disastrous': Furious pensioners call on government to reverse winter fuel payment cuts

Nearly half (44%) of older people in England think that losing the winter fuel payment will negatively impact their physical health, new research has found.

Polling from Independent Age also found that half (49%) of older people will only heat and spend time in one room this winter.

One in five (20%) said they were already planning to do this but, now an additional 29% said they will resort to this measure because of the changes to the winter fuel payment.

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“Older people ringing our helpline are incredibly worried about this decision,” Morgan Vine, director of policy and influencing at Independent Age, said. “Many of them are living in poverty and are struggling financially, and they are telling us that they are not going to be able to cope.

“A lot of the older people we support were already struggling before the winter fuel payment got taken away. We’ve heard people share with us that they aren’t able to wash in warm water. They can’t afford their rent. They are cutting back on their heating. Many of them haven’t put on their heating for years.”

More than 500,000 people have signed a combined petition calling on the UK government to protect the winter fuel payment, which was handed to Downing Street and the Treasury on Wednesday (16 October).

Pensioners and campaigners took to Westminster to demand that the government drop the changes, which will see millions of pensioners lose the payment of up to £300 to help them pay their heating bills.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced in July that only pensioners in receipt of pension credit and other means-tested benefits will get the payment this year.

“We are calling for the winter fuel payment cuts to be reversed, because we think it’s disastrous from all respects. It’s disastrous politically, because hardly anyone supports it,” said Dennis Reed, director of campaign group Silver Voices, who joined the hand-in at parliament.

“It’s disastrous economically because they won’t make many savings on it, because more people will be claiming benefits and also the NHS will be under extreme pressure because of people who succumb to the cold during winter. 

“And individually it will be disastrous as well. As this research shows, so many people will actually be only heating one room of their houses or sitting their with their scarves and gloves on, during the day in their own homes, which is outrageous in the 21st century.”

Around 43% of older people in England who will lose their winter fuel payment are planning to wear outdoor clothes indoors, such as hats and coats, to keep warm.

“There’s so many conditions which are exacerbated by the cold – respiratory conditions, arthritis, cardiac issues, circulation issues. All these unfortunately so many older people suffer from and they can be made far worse, as I can tell you with my own arthritis, when the cold comes,” Reed added.

Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have defended their decision to restrict the winter fuel payment to the poorest pensioners, calling it a “difficult decision” made because of the “dire inheritance” left behind by the Conservative government.

The government estimates the move will save around £1.4bn a year, but there are fears it will come at a cost for older people.

There are an estimated 760,000 older people who should be eligible for pension credit but are not claiming it, and many more are just above the threshold for pension credit.

More than two million pensioners are living in poverty across the UK, but only 1.5 million are expected to get the winter fuel payment this year.

“If you have to have a cut-off point for the winter fuel payment,” Reed said, “it should be set at a realistic level, and we’re suggesting that the higher rate of tax would be fair, so everyone on lower incomes, who maybe have a small pension of their own, don’t lose their incomes.”

Others, including former shadow chancellor John McDonnell, have suggested that the government should instead look at how it can take that money back from wealthy pensioners in tax.

Rob Trewhella, a 68-year-old from Cornwall, said: “Why penalise people who have worked all their lives? I’ve been paying tax and national insurance for 54 years. I spoke to a lady today who is part of the generation before me, and that generation helped rebuild the country after the Second World War. We’re all being affected. I’m just totally disgusted by it.”

Trewhella previously spoke to the Big Issue about how he is having to work part-time as a taxi driver to prop up his state pension as he cannot afford to retire – and now he has lost the winter fuel payment too.

“I meet people in their 80s and they’re not in the best of health now, so it’s not going to take much for them to become ill,” he added. “It’s such a crying shame in this day and age. We’re the poorest paid pensioners in Europe.”

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