JEFF PRESTRIDGE: Winter gas seize was so nasty – the battle is not over

Although 13 long days (and nights) have passed since Chancellor Rachel Reeves picked the pockets of pensioners to help fund inflation-busting pay increases for public sector workers, anger over her spiteful move has yet to abate. It rages like an erupting Mount Etna.

In the past week or so, readers have contacted me in their hundreds to say that they are spitting blood over her decision to end immediately the universal right for pensioners to receive a tax-free annual winter fuel payment worth up to £300 (£200 for most).

And the emails keep thundering into my inbox (thank you, please keep thundering away).

Chancellor Rachel Reeves announces the controversial change at a press conference three weeks ago

Having decamped to the other side of the Atlantic for a few days to promote the UK to potential international investors, I’m not sure Reeves realises the hornet’s nest her actions have stirred up.

Without being melodramatic (Me? Never), readers are apoplectic. Some even want to take to the streets and march on Downing Street to highlight (peacefully, of course) their hostility towards the hasty and nasty benefit grab.

And if they do, I will be there by their side.

To summarise, readers believe the restriction of the winter fuel payment to those in receipt of pension credit has been introduced too quickly – and does not give many financially challenged pensioners sufficient time to adjust their household budgets to account for the hit on their income.

As charity Age UK warns, up to two million elderly citizens will struggle to keep warm this winter because of Reeves’ heartless move. These are pensioners, says Age UK, whose finances are tight, but either just fail to qualify for pension credit or have not applied for it.

They struggle financially, day from day. So why haven’t 880,000 eligible pensioners applied for pension credit, you may well ask? There are several reasons: they don’t know how to, are not internet-savvy or else stoically refuse to be a burden on the state.

Many readers now fear for their financial future. They believe this smash and grab by Reeves marks the beginning of a financial assault on pensioners as the Chancellor looks after her masters (the unions) and panders to the public sector. They are right to be concerned.

As well as ending winter fuel payments for millions, Reeves has announced the axing of the £86,000 social care cap that was scheduled to come in late next year. This could mean pensioners having to sell their homes to fund sustained long-term care fees.

The Budget, in late October, will also be painful for the elderly. Having boxed herself in by promising not to increase income tax rates, VAT or National Insurance contribution rates, Reeves is likely to bring in a more draconian inheritance tax regime.

This will limit the ability of grandparents to pass on wealth to loved ones without their estates taking a big tax hit.

In the Chancellor’s defence, she indicated last week she has no plans to require pensioners to pay National Insurance contributions on any earnings they generate from working (thank goodness for that).

But having done the ‘dirty’ on the winter fuel payment, she might be minded to clamp down on other pensioner-friendly benefits (such as free prescriptions, eye tests and bus passes).

Late last week, Baroness Altmann, an avid campaigner for the elderly, urged Reeves to suspend her changes to winter fuel payment pending a thorough review of their impact on the most needy pensioner households.

As well as sparing many pensioners a potentially cold winter as they pare back on heating, Altmann says it would give the Chancellor the opportunity to come up with some fairer changes.

Charity Age UK warns up to two million elderly citizens will struggle to keep warm this winter because of Reeves’ heartless move

For example, withdrawing the fuel payment for pensioners who are higher or additional rate taxpayers, a move which I am sure many ‘wealthier’ pensioners would not object to. At the very least, Reeves should consider what Altmann has to say.

Many readers have called upon this newspaper to launch a petition against Reeves’ savage assault on the winter fuel payment.

It’s a good call and we have thought long and hard about it, but our considered view is that you should support the online petition already launched by Age UK.

This urges the Chancellor to reverse her decision to means-test the payment.

Nearly 350,000 people have already signed the petition. If you haven’t done so, go to ageuk.org.uk. You can request a paper copy by emailing [email protected] or writing to Freepost Age UK Campaigns (no expensive stamp needed). I have added my signature to the campaign.

My take is simple. Wrongs should be righted – and this vicious restriction of an important pensioner benefit is a political bloomer of monumental proportion.