Winter Fuel Allowance Cuts to Hit 82 Percent of Pensioners Below or Just Above Poverty Line: Analysis

A an elderly lady sitting at home in Liverpool with her electric fire on Nov. 19. 2014. Peter Byrne/PA

Four in every five pensioners living below or just below the poverty line will lose their winter fuel allowance as a result of the government’s decision to cut the benefit, new figures suggest.

Analysis by the charity Age UK found the figures “deeply worrying,” warning of a potential disaster for many pensioners this winter.

Age UK reported that 82 percent or 2.5 million pensioners will miss out on the winter fuel allowance, including those over the age of 80, disabled and those living alone.

From this year, older people in England and Wales who are not in receipt of pension credit or certain other means-tested benefits, will no longer receive winter fuel payments.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves made the announcement in July, telling MPs that a number of spending cuts were unavoidable.

The policy proved unpopular with a number of politicians and charities, concerned with the impact of the cut on the most vulnerable.

Age UK said that under the government’s plan, a total of 10.7 million of all UK pensioners will lose their winter fuel payment, of whom almost one in four (23 percent) live in poverty or just above the poverty line.

The restrictions will affect 1.1 million of pensioners with a disability and 1 million who live alone and in poverty or just above the poverty line.

“I think most members of the public will be horrified that this is the outcome of the government’s decision, because it means that millions of pensioners are being exposed to the risk of failing to be able to stay adequately warm this winter, even though they are living on a low income,” Age UK director Caroline Abrahams told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement.

Impact

The government produced an equality analysis of the policy impact last month. It estimated that 780,000 pensioners still eligible to receive the benefit will lose it under planned cuts.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) also said that 83 percent of those aged over 80 and around 71 percent of those with a disability will lose entitlement. Older pensioners will be proportionately worse off financially as a consequence of the policy, the government said.

The DWP said it hadn’t prepared a full impact assessment for the regulations because they won’t have “significant new impact on business, charities or voluntary bodies.”

However, Age UK, who produced its own equality impact assessment, said that its conclusions are “stark.”

“Unfortunately, the research supports our worst fears – that unless ministers change tack, and quickly, millions of older people on low and modest incomes could be facing potential disaster as the weather chills,” said Abrahams.

Age UK has called on the ministers to retain winter fuel payments as a universal entitlement this winter and confirm the protections in the upcoming October budget.

The very least that the government could do is expand the eligibility to automatically include pensioners on other benefits, such as council tax support and housing benefit.

“Even this would not be enough though because many pensioners on low incomes or in vulnerable circumstances would still miss out on a winter fuel payment when they can ill afford to do so.

“This means the government would need to go further; for example, looking to give extra help to the older people who for various reasons receive only a small proportion of the full State Pension, for whom the WFP is an absolute lifeline,” said Abrahams.

A government spokesperson said that millions of pensioners will see their state pension rise by up to £1,700 this parliament due to the government’s triple lock commitment.

Pensioners will also benefit from the £150 Warm Home Discount to help with energy bills and from the extension of the Household Support Fund to help with food and heating costs.

PA Media contributed to this report.