UK Austerity must be ended – on all fronts

MAY 28, 2025

Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s belated announcement that he is rethinking the cuts to the winter fuel payments is welcome and underlines the fact that public pressure – especially at the ballot box – is effective, even over a government with a huge majority.

This partial U-turn falls a long way short of complete reinstatement of the Winter Fuel Benefit, which has been the campaign’s focus. As Jan Shortt, General Secretary of the National Pensioners Convention, commented: “NPC has been campaigning tirelessly for the full reinstatement of the universal Winter Fuel Payment, and it looks like this may be a first step towards success. But, as always the devil is in the detail, and the government wants to wait until the autumn before they let us all know what they are actually planning.

“While this announcement is a welcome step, it takes no account of individual everyday living costs and the damage that has already been done over the coldest months of the year.  Nine million older people lost the universal payment when the government scrapped it in favour of means testing.  Many have now endured a long winter without this vital assistance, with ever increasing energy bills not to mention the rising costs of food and other essentials.”

Writing in the Guardian, Jon Trickett MP called for the government to go further and completely reverse the cut, which he had voted against. He pointed out that Britain is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, “but  the richest 50 families in the UK own more wealth than half of the population.”

Responding to the partial U-turn, Simon Francis, coordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, said: “What matters now is the detail, especially if Winter Fuel Payments are not restored to all pensioners.

“There are three tests we will apply to any announcement based on thresholds, tapers and wider targeting to see if ministers are getting the message. We need to see the Pension Credit threshold raised significantly, a taper system introduced to stop people missing out on Winter Fuel Payments for being just £1 over the line, and wider targeting of this support, including for those on non-means tested disability benefits or Carer’s Allowance.

“Above all, ministers must learn lessons from this scandalous decision. Sadly, there are rumours that the Chancellor is planning to water down the Warm Homes Plan promised in the Labour manifesto and reduce the £13.2bn promised to it. Any dilution of the proposals will mean fewer older people can be helped to reduce their energy use in a safe way.”

Some 3.2 million pensioner households are facing unaffordable energy costs, MPs were told last week, with around 964,000 households in deep fuel poverty, meaning they spend more than 20% of their income on energy.

The Work and Pensions Select Committee also heard evidence heard that health workers too are raising the alarm about pensioner poverty. A recent Medact survey found that three-quarters of clinicians regularly see patients made ill by poor housing conditions, and almost half have discharged patients into homes they knew would make them sick again. 

According to Age UK, 35% of pensioners earning less than £20,000 said their home was too cold most or all of the time this January, and nearly half said they were worried about the effect of energy prices on their health.

The campaign is also urging MPs to accept the recommendations of the Future of Local Welfare Inquiry report and make the Household Support Fund permanent. Campaigners have also called MPs to back reform the Warm Home Discount, and modernise the Cold Weather Payment into an “Extreme Weather Payment” that reaches vulnerable households before temperatures drop dangerously low.

Child poverty

Campaigners are now calling for austerity to be abandoned on other fronts. Diane Abbott MP said: “The Labour leadership should review other planned cuts. They are an attack on the most vulnerable and they damage Labour too.”

A recent briefing by Save the Children states that child poverty in the UK reached a record high in March 2025, with 4.5 million children affected. It calls for the scrapping of the two-child limit and the benefit cap.

Zarah Sultana MP tweeted: “35,000 more children have been pushed into poverty since Labour took office — because they kept the two-child benefit cap. That’s not just a number. That’s real children, facing real hardship, every single day. I voted to scrap it. I’d do it again.”

Even the fiscally prudent Gordon Brown has demolished the ideas that scrapping what he called the “cruel” two-child limit is unaffordable and outlined tax options for funding its abolition – starting with a £2.4bn increase in taxation of the gambling industry.

Disability benefit cuts

The third area of social policy austerity where the government faces mounting pressure is cuts to disability benefits. Dr Mary-Ann Stephenson, Director at the Women’s Budget Group, points out: “Women will be disproportionately impacted by these changes. 62% of the 1.32 million people set to lose PIP are women, largely due to musculoskeletal conditions and arthritis being much more prevalent among women, conditions which will be less likely to meet the new criteria.

“Stripping Disabled women of this income will undermine their economic independence and make them more reliant on partners and family members, and so more vulnerable to abuse.

“The Government also needs to recognise the knock-on impacts of these cuts. PIP is a gateway benefit for Carer’s Allowance, and it’s estimated that 150,000 unpaid carers will lose access to it as a result of these changes. Nearly three-quarters of Carer’s Allowance recipients are women.

“Cutting disability support doesn’t remove the need, it just shifts the cost. Those who will lose PIP will either have to cover the costs themselves, which could leave them struggling financially or rely on unpaid care usually provided by women. They in turn will either have to reduce their working hours or drop out of the workforce to provide that care. It’s hard to square this with the Chancellor’s goal of getting people into work.

“These cuts are a political choice, not an unavoidable necessity. The Government is choosing to make Disabled people and women pay the price to meet self-imposed fiscal rules, instead of asking those with the broadest shoulders.”

Nadia Whittome MP tweeted: “I will continue to oppose these cuts. I reiterated my pledge to vote against them if the government pushes ahead.”

Kim Johnson MP said: “These cuts are sadistically cruel. I wasn’t elected to inflict harm onto the most vulnerable in our society – I will be voting against these cuts.”

Brian Leisham MP agreed: “I’ll continue to campaign and vote against these awful cuts.”

RALLY – Halt Disability Benefit Cuts Now!

Join Zarah Sultana MP, Ellen Clifford (DPAC,) John McDonnell MP, Sarah Woolley (BFAWU) and more.

Tuesday, June 10th, 6:30 – 8pm ONLINE. Register here.

Organised by Arise – A Festival of Left Ideas

Photo: c/o Labour Hub.