COVENTRY MESSAGE BOARD

Reeves scraps winter fuel payments for 10m pensioners to fund public sector wage rise



Rachel Reeves is to scrap winter fuel payments for 10m pensioners and ditch a cap on social care costs, it has been announced.

The Chancellor’s decision leaves millions of retirees worse-off and means tens of thousands of elderly Britons now face the prospect of selling their homes to foot their care bills.

It came as Ms Reeves announced she would make £5.5bn in savings this year as she claimed the Tories had left a £22bn hole in the public finances.

The bulk of this includes a £9.4bn pay settlement that will be made to public sector workers this year.

However, this does not include a 22pc settlement for junior doctors announced on Monday.

Planned savings include restricting winter fuel payments to people already claiming means-tested benefits.

In a major departure from previous Labour manifesto pledges, Ms Reeves said it was “fair and right” to withhold the payment from millions of pensioners.

Labour had called for payments to be restricted in 2015, when Ed Miliband was leader and Ms Reeves was shadow work and pensions secretary. However, Jeremy Corbyn pledged to keep it.

Last month, a Labour spokesman insisted they had “no plans” to change the policy.

Scrapping the payments means almost 10m pensioners are set to lose out for the first time. Ms Reeves will also order departments to make in-year savings.

Currently, all 11.4m pensioners receive an extra £200 to help heat their homes every winter, with people aged over 80 receiving a blanket £300 payment.

Charities condemned Ms Reeves’ decision warning that 2m pensioners on low incomes would be hit hardest. The changes to winter fuel payments will come into effect from November.

Age UK estimates that more than 800,000 older people living on very low incomes – under £218.25 a week for single pensioners and under £332.95 for couples – are already missing out on pension credit. They will now lose money that currently helps to pay their energy bills.

It also said 1m pensioners, whose weekly incomes are less than £50 above the poverty line, will also be hit hard by the loss of the payment.

Caroline Abrahams, the charity director at Age UK, warned that millions of pensioners would face a “horrible ‘eating or heating’ dilemma.”

Challenged at a press conference on whether she was “picking on pensioners”, Ms Reeves said “in the circumstances I found myself in these are the fair and right decisions”.

Ms Reeves’ move is expected to hit the majority of pensioners and save £1.4bn this year and £1.5bn next year. It means only 1.5m households will receive the payments going forward.

Rachel Reeves will be forced to U-turn on winter fuel means tests, warns former minister



Chancellor Rachel Reeves has been warned that her plans to means test winter fuel payments will not be possible because of ageing computer systems.

Former pensions minister Guy Opperman, who ran benefits for pensioners between 2017 and 2022 and looked at means testing winter fuel payments, has issued a warning that the system in the Department for Workm and Pensions cannot cope with the changes Ms Reeves has proposed.

In a thread on X (formerly Twitter), Mr Opperman has explained why he believes Ms Reeves will be forced to u-turn on the plan,

He wrote: “I was the Minister in charge of this policy at DWP from 2017-2022. Labour are making a big mistake.

“Firstly an explainer of our benefit system. It is a big beast made up of 12+ ageing computer systems and 1000s of admin staff. It does not do nuance and fine margins. The state pension and add on benefits - winter fuel payment, Christmas support etc are one off payments.”

He went on: “Over the last few years the Conservative government added an extra £300 extra cost of living winter fuel payment support to all pensioners, meaning they got £500-£600 in winter fuel payments. This is also not being renewed by labour. So the £500-600 loss to a pensioner on state pensions is huge.”

“I know the DWP civil servants who are advising the ministers. They know you cannot means test the winter fuel payment, save money and not avoid big gaps in support. The reason is because, whilst we all agree multi millionaires should not need winter fuel payment support, people who have only the state pension do need this support. The error is Labour is targeting both these groups. Their exceptions are way way too narrow. And this relies on pension credit applications filling the gap.”

He concluded: “So the reality is that between multi-millionaires and state pensioners not on pension credit thousands of pensioners will struggle to heat their homes this winter; I know hundreds of my former constituents in Northumberland will struggle this winter.

“One thing is sure. This policy as presently proposed will not last. I am afraid the ministers should listen to their civil servants on this one.”

Pensioner body calls on Reeves to reverse cut to winter fuel allowance



Jan Shortt, the general secretary of the National Pensioners Convention (NPC), one of the UK’s biggest campaigning organisation for older people, has written to the chancellor, noting many older people may “not survive to see the spring or any other season” after the payments are cut.

Shortt said in her letter to the chancellor: “Our members are angered and concerned about your plan to remove the winter fuel payment from older people who do not receive pension credit.

“There are already 2 million older people in poverty across the UK. For them, this means living in damp, cold homes, washing in cold water and not using the cooker, all to save money. At least a further 1 million older people live with precarious finances and face growing financial insecurity.”

She predicted it would not be long before many pensioners fell into “silent poverty” that was not among government statistics “because they are not entitled to a benefit”.

“Not everyone has a full state pension and not everyone has an occupational pension to fall back on. Those just above the pension credit threshold are penalised and struggle on a daily basis with a static income deemed by the government to be sufficient to live on,” she said, adding that the effects of the cut would be worsened if energy prices increased in October, as expected.

The NPC called on the government to “step away from this ill-advised strategy immediately”. Instead, it said, the government should ensure that the approximately 800,000 people who were entitled to, but not receiving, pension credit were signed up, and it should put a strategy in place to make it easier for people to take up relevant benefits more broadly.

Shortt said the pension triple lock would not be enough to offset the loss of the winter fuel payment.

The reported savings of about £1.5bn a year seemed “relatively poor compared to the mass misery that will be caused this winter”, Shortt said. She added:“Evidence shows that cutting the income of older people struggling to make ends meet inevitably puts a further burden on NHS and care services as more are unable to heat their homes and buy nutritious food.”