#045 Means Testing Winter Fuel Payments
The Most Unpopular Labour Party Policy Since The 2003 Invasion of Iraq
In July 2024, almost immediately following the 2024 general election, the newly elected Keir Starmer lead Labour government decided to implement one of the most politically damaging policies ever seen in British history. It chose to means test pensioner winter fuel payments, despite no previous mention of doing so in their pre-election 2024 manifesto.
They did this to look fiscally tough in essence, but they were met with an immediate popular backlash, from which they have never recovered.
The winter fuel payment (or winter fuel allowance) had existed for 27 years prior, being a universal benefit of £200 or £300 that all pensioners (meaning people above state pension age) received annually (& tax free) towards energy costs each winter, regardless of how much wealth or income individual pensioners had.
The government decreed, through its decision to “means test” this benefit, no pensioner would continue to automatically receive the payment and they decreed only the very poorest pensioners, those on pensioner credit or other “means tested” benefits, would be able to claim it, via a 240 page form, based on being able to show they were below a wealth & income threshold and therefore deserving of the money in the government’s eyes.
The justification the government used was the poor economic state the previous (Conservative) government had left the country’s finances in and that it would save roughly £1.4billion per year (assuming many hundreds of thousands of those very poor pensioners did not, as a result, all claim pension credit) however these justifications failed to convince most of the electorate. The policy came to be seen as a cruel and dangerous policy, large numbers of people turned against the government in their first six months in office.
Polling quickly revealed how unpopular the policy had become, in the eyes of the electorate, particularly older people, and the move has, along with other policy decisions, discredited the new government and its current leader. The charity Age UK, Unite the Union (a Labour Party affiliated Trade Union) and even Martin Lewis, the much loved “Money Saving Expert”, have all publicly denounced the policy for the financial impact it will have on pensioners, in particular those just above the pension credit threshold who now cannot get the Winter Fuel Payment, and also, crucially, those below the income/wealth threshold, who are eligible for it but won’t claim it.
Over the last three winters, beginning in winter 2022, energy prices have significantly increased and although the prices have come down (somewhat) since the peak in January 2023, cutting the winter fuel payment at this time has and will negatively affect pensioners financially.
A Labour Party report, from back in 2017, even warned that thousands of pensioners could die if the (tory) government (of the time) proceeded with its alleged plan to cut winter fuel payment for those not on benefits.
The report even stated the change would represent,
“the single biggest attack on pensioners in a generation, in our country”.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/winter-fuel-payment-cut-labour-deaths-b2609340.html.
More recent analysis also suggested tens of thousands of pensioners will be pushed into relative fuel poverty by the move over the years to come.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/nov/19/winter-fuel-payment-cuts-may-force-100000-pensioners-below-poverty-line.
Senior members of the Labour Party, not being members of government or parliament, have also publicly opposed the policy. Most notably the Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham, who has urged the chancellor to soften the policy, and Anas Sarwar MSP, the Leader of the Scottish Labour Party, who has even gone as far as to pledge to bring back the Winter Fuel Payment, should he win the next election in Scotland saying all pensioners would receive the benefit without having to apply, as before, but that better off Scots would pay some of it back.
Additionally, the government did not carry out an impact assessment on this change of policy and has even already incurred two separate legal challenges, the first from Unite the Union (https://www.unitetheunion.org/news-events/news/2024/november/winter-fuel-unite-applies-to-high-court-for-judicial-review) and the second from a Scottish couple (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj9njvyr2dgo).
The Labour Party’s own conference also voted against the policy in 2024 and the Scottish parliament (lead by the SNP First Minister) even voted for the Labour government to reverse the policy. Both of these votes have been completely ignored by the current Labour government.
Through this disastrous policy decision then, the Labour Party, under Keir Starmer’s leadership, have shown how tone deaf and seemingly uncaring they can be in power and have set the tone for the potentially ruthless way they intend to govern across the remainder of the parliament. Whilst the Winter Fuel Payment only represents a few hundred pounds per pensioner per year, and will save relatively little money for the government, particularly if a large amount of people who are eligible to receive pension credit go on to claim it as the government say they want, the simple political principle of restricting who can and will receive winter fuel payments has and will continue to damage Labour’s reputation. Labour merely repeating the line “we’ve had to make difficult choices” in response will do little to lessen this damage. Moreover the Labour government have since refused to change course, and refused even to soften the policy, despite sustained questioning and derision from the media and from the electorate directly.
In six short months Labour’s policy to means test winter fuel payments has quickly become the most unpopular Labour Party policy since the 2003 government decision to invade Iraq.
It should also be seen in the context of their other U-turns, betrayals and broken promises - https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/starmer-waspi-labour-fuel-tax-b2666452.html
