- Rachel Reeves has cut the Winter Fuel Payment for 10 million pensioners, abandoning Labour’s election pledge within weeks of entering government. The Chancellor confirmed that Labour will means-test the Winter Fuel Payment, limiting it to those in receipt of Pension Credit and certain other means-tested benefits from winter 2024-2025.
- Around 880,000 vulnerable pensioner households will miss out on the Winter Fuel Payment despite being on very low incomes. In February 2024, around 880,000 households did not claim Pension Credit despite being eligible. After the Chancellor’s cuts, they will no longer receive the Winter Fuel Payment, despite being on a low income – under £218.25 a week for single pensioners and under £332.95 for a couple.
- The Energy Price Cap is expected to increase by £149 per year from October 2024. At the same time Labour is removing support for pensioners to help with heating bills, Ofgem has increased the energy price cap by nine per cent, from £1,568 to £1,714 per year for a typical consumer.
- The Conservatives delivered nearly 12 million Winter Fuel Payments and Pensioner Cost of Living Payments to pensioners during winter 2023-24, helping to protect the most vulnerable. 11.9 million payments, worth £4.8 billion, were made to pensioners across the UK in 2023-24, providing vulnerable households up to £600 to help with their energy bill during the winter.
- Labour’s scrapping of the Winter Fuel Payment comes despite Labour’s Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Darren Jones MP, saying that Labour had ‘no plans to make changes’ to pensioner benefits.
- “Rachel Reeves must reverse this decision so that those who worked hard and saved all of their life, live with dignity and security in retirement.”
- You can sign the petition here keepwinterfuel.com.
