Around 10 million pensioners are set to lose their winter fuel payments under plans which were backed by MPs this week.
Labour MPs rejected an attempt by the Opposition to block the plan put forward by Chancellor Rachel Reeves. She announced the cuts shortly after Labour won the general election in July, saying the cuts were necessary because of the previous Tory government’s “undisclosed” overspending. Our interactive map shows the impact it will have in your area – with nine out of 10 older people set to miss out in some parts of the country.
The change means those not on pension credit or other means-tested benefits will no longer get the annual payments, worth between £100 and £300. In 2022-23, the latest figures available, just over 11.1 million pensioners were eligible for winter fuel payment in England and Wales.
But as of last November, only 1.2m were eligible for pension credits. That means about 9.9m will miss out in England and Wales. The change does not apply In Scotland, where responsibility for the payment is set to be transferred to the Scottish Government this winter.
The cuts are most likely to affect pensioners in affluent areas, with more than nine in 10 pensioners missing out on fuel payments this year in some parts of the country.
You can see how many pensioners are likely to be eligible for payment next winter – and how many will miss out – using our interactive map.
In Hart in Hampshire, 95.2% of pensioners will no longer be eligible for the payments – which means only about one in 20 will receive it. Elderly people are least likely to lose the benefit in the more deprived London borough of Tower Hamlets, where just 54.9% will lose the payments.
In local authority areas that are frequently ranked as having the highest levels of deprivation in the country, such as Blackpool and Middlesbrough, more than 80% of pensioners will lose the payments.
Cuts to winter fuel payments, and a number of other spending cuts outlined by the Chancellor this week, could save £1.5 billion. However, charities have criticised the cuts – with Age UK warning that up to two million elderly people who just miss out on receiving a payment could face some stark choices next winter.
The charity says that one in three pensioners who are entitled to pension credit – the qualifying benefit for a winter fuel payment – don’t claim it. Age UK estimates that more than 800,000 elderly people on low incomes who do not receive pension credit will now also lose their winter fuel payments.
Around a million additional elderly people with incomes below £50 per week will also be hit hard by the loss of the payment, the charity estimates. Age UK says the cuts will also hit a third group living in energy-inefficient homes – or with illnesses that make it necessary for them to stay warm – who may struggle to find the extra money to heat their homes.
Charity director Caroline Abrahams CBE said: “We strongly oppose the means-testing of Winter Fuel Payment (WFP) because our initial estimate is that as many as two million pensioners who badly need the money to stay warm this winter will not receive it and will be in trouble as a result – yet at the other end of the spectrum well-off older people will scarcely notice the difference – a social injustice.
“It is well established that pensioners tend to do everything possible to avoid going into debt, so if they are worried about their future energy bills, we know their likely response will be to ration their fuel use and economise by reducing their spending on other essentials. This proposed policy change is therefore certain to result in more older people experiencing a horrible ‘eating or heating’ dilemma.”