Winter fuel payments: pressure mounts on government

Welsh Labour First Minister Eluned Morgan is the latest senior Labour figure to join the growing calls for Keir Starmer to rethink his hugely unpopular policy on welfare cuts and the axing of the Winter Fuel Allowance.

Her comments came as an opinion poll suggested Labour was trailing in third place in Wales behind Plaid and Reform UK, with its worst vote share – 18% – since devolution a quarter of a century ago. With a year to go before the Senedd elections, Morgan said she was “losing patience” with the national Party leadership.

She added: “Where we disagree, we will say it. When we see unfairness, we will stand up for it. When Westminster makes decisions that we think will harm Welsh communities, we will not stay silent.”

The government continues to rule out reversing its cuts to winter fuel payments, despite the pressure from backbenchers, although there are reports of an internal debate taking place about tinkering with the threshold over which pensioners are no longer eligible for the allowance.

Such tinkering was rejected by former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell MP who tweeted: “If Labour decision makers think ‘reviewing’ Winter Fuel Allowance will save them, they’re not living in same world as rest of us. Only scrapping of WFA cut and dropping completely plans to cut benefits to disabled will show that as PM claimed, ‘he gets it.'”

Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP added: “Nothing short of a total U-turn on cuts to winter fuel payments and disability benefits will get this government back on track.”

“Pensioners push back

Jan Shortt, National Pensioners Convention General Secretary, said: “There is no doubt they lost the respect of many older voters after the cuts left millions having to choose between paying to heat their homes or eating this winter,” adding, “The government should take the chance to right a wrong and prove they have the welfare of the oldest and most vulnerable at heart.

“Despite the government’s much vaunted Triple Lock increase in the state pension in April, the rising cost of living, and exorbitant energy and other household bills have wiped out any financial benefit from the rise. Older people feel they are no better off after the pension increase, and many say they are worse off because the threshold for starting to pay income tax has not risen in line with inflation, so many are now paying tax too.”

Financial commentator Martin Lewis posted that the government may choose to re-think the cuts by raising the eligibility threshold for Pension Credit from £11,500, which would be welcome. But he pointed out “It still doesn’t fix the worst underlying problem of the means testing mechanism (i.e. to get it you must claim Pension Credit).”

Jan Shortt commented: “We agree with Martin Lewis.  Around 700,000 of the most vulnerable pensioners, already earning under £11,500, don’t get Winter Fuel Payments because they are unable to, or don’t want togo through the overly complex process of claiming Pension Credit. This means they miss out on important support like Winter Fuel Payments.

“The government must stop looking at how they can make savings by cutting support for other vital benefits or projects and concentrate on how they can tax wealth to invest in the economy andmake a real difference to people who are struggling.”

Simon Francis, coordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, commented: “The Chancellor’s cuts to Winter Fuel Payments last year caused unnecessary suffering for thousands of older people, especially those who just missed out on the payments or have disabilities. Other reports in the media suggest that she is now looking to take an axe to the Labour Manifesto commitment to double spending on a Warm Homes Plan.

“This is incredibly serious as any dilution of this £13.2bn Plan will have long term consequences. Helping people improve the energy efficiency of their homes is one of the central ways the Government can help households in fuel poverty and bring down energy bills for good.”

More grief for energy consumers

The campaign also  warned of a “looming crisis” for households on old-style Radio Teleswitch Service (RTS) meters, the replacement programme for which is showing signs of failing, meaning urgent action will be needed to prevent vulnerable households potentially being left without heating and hot water.

In a letter [pdf] addressed to Miatta Fahnbulleh MP, Minister for Energy Consumers, and Ofgem Chief Executive Jonathan Brearley, the Coalition raised serious concerns about the pace and communication of the meter replacement effort, which affects hundreds of thousands of households across the UK.

The RTS system – used by older electricity meters to control heating and hot water – will be switched off later this year. If an RTS meter is not replaced before the service is switched off, Ofgem warns that households risk losing access to heating and hot water, particularly where electric storage heating is used. 

“Based on our members’ conversations with energy suppliers, we estimate that in Scotland alone, tens of thousands of RTS meters are yet to be addressed, leaving many consumers in limbo,” the letter states.

“Urgent action is now required,” said Simon Francis. “There is a very real risk that over 300,000 households will find their RTS meter stops working properly come 1st July 2025. There’s a real risk of prolonged disruption, particularly for vulnerable households.”

Image: Prime Minister Keir Starmer meets Baroness Eluned Morgan  https://www.flickr.com/photos/number10gov/53933106992/ Creator: Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Str | Credit: Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Str Copyright: Crown copyright. Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Deed