Over 80,000 pensioners are set to lose Winter Fuel Allowance and a senior Cheshire East Councillor is calling for action to support low-income pensioners affected by the Labour Government’s scrapping of the Winter Fuel Payment. Meanwhile, Age UK has called for the cuts to be halted.
Following the new Labour Government’s decision to scrap Winter Fuel Payments for the majority of pensioners, analysis shows that over 80,000 people across Cheshire East will be at least £250 worse off this Winter.
Many are in some of the most deprived parts of the Borough and the numbers of pensioners affected are staggering.
Examples include:
➢ Crewe North: 819 (92% of pensioners in the ward)
➢ Crewe West: 1373 (86% of pensioners in the ward)
➢ Crewe East: 2,549 (90% of pensioners in the ward)
➢ Crewe South: 1,165 (89% of pensioners in the ward)
➢ Crewe St Barnabas: 466 (84% of pensioners in the ward)
➢ Crewe Central: 494 (75% of pensioners in the ward)
Councillor Janet Clowes, Leader of Cheshire East Council Conservative Group, said:
“Many of the 80,000 pensioners set to lose their Winter Fuel Payment may have incomes just above the threshold for Pension Credit and these payments were a lifeline. Cheshire East Conservatives are deeply concerned about the impact on pensioners, especially those who are already finding it hard to make ends meet and where prices and Council Tax are still rising.
“For more than 20 years, both Labour and Conservative governments have committed to maintaining Winter Fuel Payments, along with free NHS prescriptions and bus travel. This new approach is a bitter blow.”
“The Labour-Independent leadership of Cheshire East Council is already committed to cuts in services that will further impact on the vulnerable elderly, including cutting the emergency assistance scheme and raising care costs (a significant financial outlay for many pensioners).
We are asking that at the very least, the Labour-led administration works with community partners across the borough to support pensioners navigate this additional financial pressure, including claiming pension credit if they are eligible.
“Whilst some pensioners in Cheshire East will cope without the Winter Fuel Payment, it’s clear that this policy will have a far wider impact than currently acknowledged”.
Age UK’s Charity Director Caroline Abrahams CBE has stated;
“More than one in three pensioners entitled to Pension Credit, the qualifying benefit for WFP under this proposal, don’t receive it (and) 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 – who are already missing out of the Pension Credit they are entitled to get, will now lose the WFP that helps them to pay their fuel bills”
.
“(Another) group who will find it extremely difficult to heat their homes adequately this winter as a result of the proposed change are older people whose incomes are a little higher though still limited, but who live in energy inefficient homes and/or who are seriously unwell and need to keep the thermostat turned up high in order to protect their health.”
In conclusion;
“Means-testing WFP this winter, with virtually no notice and no compensatory measures to protect poor and vulnerable pensioners, is the wrong policy decision, and one that will potentially jeopardise their health as well as their finances” – the last thing pensioners, the NHS or Cheshire East’s adult social care services need.
[ENDS]
Notes to Readers:
Following the Chancellor’s announcement in July, winter fuel payments – previously eligible for all pensioners – will now be limited to those who receive pension credit, and certain other benefits including income support, income-based jobseeker’s allowance, income-related employment and support allowance and universal credit.
DWP data, broken down on a ward by ward basis, lists state pension recipients (May 2023), Pension Credit recipients (November 2023) and the number of WFP withdrawn as a consequence of the Government’s changes.
Source: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/jsf/login.xhtml
Ref: https://www.ageuk.org.uk/latest-press/articles/2024/age-uk-responds-to-…-
announcement-to-means-test-the-winter-fuel-payment/
