UPDATE: Statistics released today (Tuesday) show claims for Winter Fuel Allowance jumped by 214,000 last year. More and more people over 80 are claiming the £300 higher allowance which had reached 3.3 million for the first time. The new figures mean the government will save even more money by abolishing it for all those not claiming pension credit, particularly from the very elderly. Figures released also show that those state pensioners living in EU countries who will continue to get the allowance amounted to 34,300. Over three quarters of them, some 26,000, live in the Republic of Ireland while those in Northern Ireland will get nothing. Qualifying for the allowance last year was this week which raises whether those claiming pension credit after this week will get the money for this winter.
Chancellor’s decision fuels racism when it is revealed her cuts are aimed at 95 per cent of white British born people
At last no doubt embarrassed by the Equality and Human Rights Commission which said the new Labour government was in breach of the Public Sector Equality Duty, the Treasury and the Department of Work and Pensions have had to release a breakdown of who is affected by the abolition of the winter fuel allowance.
Both departments used the mechanism of a Freedom of Information request made in August and chose a Friday afternoon to slip it out after Parliament had gone into recess to avoid too much publicity.
The clue is in what the announcement is called – an Equality statement – not an impact statement which was demanded by the House of Lords. In fact there has been no impact statement prepared at all even when Age UK said that about two million pensioners who will lose the annual £200 or £300 payment are just above the cut off point.
The document itself makes a claim that more men than women are affected by the change. But this is based on percentages not the actual figures. As it says: “This means that 85% (5.2m) of women receiving a Winter Fuel Payment (WFP) will lose out, compared to 91% (4.8m) of men. The reason for this is that women live longer than men and are more affected by the loss of the payment. The gender breakdown is 54% (6.1m) of those who received a WFP in GB in 2022/23 Female, and 46% (5.2m)
Male.
The figures reveal that the older you are, the bigger the loss you make, partly because the payment for over 80s is £300 rather than £200 per household.
The statement says: ” Although a smaller proportion of those aged 80+ will lose out than those under 80, due to the higher rate of WFP from that age, older pensioners who are affected will be proportionally worse off financially as a consequence of the policy.”
This is still 2.7 million people in top of the 7.9 million aged 66 to 79 who lose out.
Then there is the effect on the disabled – those claiming attendance allowance and disability living allowance. Here 1.6 million lose out and they must be the most vulnerable to the cold.
So if you are woman, more elderly and disabled you are worse off. If you are all three it is catastrophic.
The government has made a lot of noise about the 880,000 people not claiming pensions credit who could qualify by applying and getting the winter fuel allowance. But the paper says despite all the noise ministers are only expecting another 100,000 to claim leaving 780,000 still going without it.
The figures for existing claimants for pension credit are interesting. The most successful claimants are men not women – despite men being in a minority. The least successful are couples and there is a nasty reason for this. Under the Tories rules were changed so that both people had to be aged 66 to get it. So if you had a man who was 66 married to a woman who was 62 you would be excluded from claiming it until the man was 70 and the woman 66. No wonder the take up is lower. And Labour haven’t changed the rules.
Finally there is an ethnic breakdown. In the UK among the general population 84 per cent of the people are white British and 16 per cent are from ethnic minorities. Among the pensioner population, 95 per cent are white British and only five per cent are from ethnic minorities. So Labour in this case has targeted anybody who was born here far more heavily than people who were not.
This may well explain why I am getting a backlash from readers of this blog who complain that the government is doing more for people who have just arrived here than the population who have worked here since they were 15. They think it is unfair.
Cheerleader for Nigel Farage?
So we have the extraordinary situation that Rachel Reeves is inadvertently becoming the cheerleader for Nigel Farage by providing him with a platform to say that British born people are being unfairly penalised.
Her policy among that generation may well drive them to support Reform because they have a grievance that only Labour has created and cannot be blamed on the Tories. This unfortunate situation aids racism and has more purchase with people than tales of a £22 billion black hole.
Then there are international repercussion. The last government was already in trouble with the UN Convention on the Elimination of all Discrimination against women and girls (CEDAW) in Geneva. Although we ratified it nearly 40 years ago when Lady Thatcher signed us up, we have not implemented in law many of the provisions. This is a new policy – even though it was done administratively – and the government has not tested the impact on women which is against the convention.
More close to home there could be a case for indirect discrimination against women because although the policy appears to be fair to all pensioners, women are again bearing the brunt of it.
Of course as I argued in a previous blog both Rachel Reeves and Sir Keir Starmer know that many pensioners will die before the 2029 general election so they won’t be here to vote. By implementing this cruel policy for those just above the cut off point they know many more will join them as they freeze in their homes this winter.
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Westminster Confidential 
I am perplexed by why the level for Single Pension Credit is deliberately manipulated to keep it just under the level of the maximum New State Pension.
New State Pension
2019 £168.70
2020 £175.20 +3.8%
2021 £179.60 +2.5%
2022 £185.15 +3.1%
2023 £203.85 +10.1%
2024 £221.20 +8.5%
Pension Credit
2019 £167.25
2020 £173.75 +3.9%
2021 £177.10 +1.9%
2022 £182.60 +3.1%
2023 £201.85 +10.5%
2024 £218.15 +8.1%
In 2020 and 2023 Pension Credit was raised by more than the triple lock but raised by less the following years.
Having had a play with the Turn2Us online benefits calculator this week, if your only income is New State Pension you may still be able to get some housing benefit and council tax support if you rent and council tax support if you own your home but it’s ludicrous that just £3.05 pw means you will not now receive £200 WFP. This makes the person claiming Pension Credit better off. That cannot be right if it’s because the person claiming Pension Credit hasn’t worked as many years.
Of the women surveyed by DWP in 2004 about awareness of the equalisation of state pension age, a very high percentage of those who worked in low paid routine and manual jobs did not have an occupational pension. Those were the ones who had to go on working until 66 as they had no other pension to fall back on which might have allowed them to stop work at 60. If they had already worked for 35 years, they paid another five years of NIC for no more pension. Now the Government denies them £200 to keep warm.
Younger pensioners probably won’t die before 2029 but they will remember this. Farage said he would be coming after Labour next. He won’t need to. Reeves is doing the job for him and, frankly, it’s a terrifying prospect.
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I have sent 3 emails to the leader of the labour party not as my mp but as a labour voter,since i was 18 and i will be 70 next birthday and disabled i lose out not just on the winterfuel allowance but also as one of the 50’s born womenm i alsioo sent 2 email;s to my local mp diana abbot and to the pensions mps and the chancellor and not one has replied to me if the labour government want us to beleive that the tories has messed up so badly then let them prove it , all i know is i’m not sure how i will manage because i have such high bills the winter fuel allowance allowed me to pay of some of my debt the last government also stopped a lot of people getting the £150 towards there electric bills becausonly pensioners on pension credit can get it now before as a disabled p[erson i was able to get it, what the government are not saying is those people on the new state pension can not get pension credit, i have worked since i was 15 untill i was layed of due to being disabled,but still put in many years of work
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Excellent artic
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if I cannot keep warm I cannot afford the gas I will give up work , 1 am 70 years old should not have to live like this . With liars in parliament , disgusting. There will be civil wars here !!!!
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Not strictly on topic. I am seventy six years of age and a life long socialist but I have never in all my adult life felt so much antipathy towards a government before now. And not just due to my loss of winter fuel allowance, and not due to the upcoming loss of 25% council tax discount. These policies, and others, are indeed quite shocking, but there is something else altogether that leads to my antipathy towards this Labour government. It is its lack of quality, and I say lack of quality in every sense of the word. This government appears to be composed of individuals of low intelligence, low morals and ethics; career politicians without ideals, principles and beliefs. A motley crowd of opportunists and charlatans. Quite obnoxious people. Keir Starmer is a suitable leader and frontman, said to be the finest legal mind of his generation yet slow witted, inarticulate, and lacking intellectually and morally. A thoroughly unlikeable individual. Enough, do not get me started on Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner, and others.
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What upsets me most is that I’m just above the limit but I also get Housing Benefit which is a means tested benefit so I initially thought I was going to get WFP to discover that I’m not because it doesn’t count but nobody has pointed this out?
Sent from my iPhone
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one Waspi women is dying every 13 minutes.so since Labour took over many thousands have died, never to get justice,.almost all ones still alive will suffer more now they cut the winter fuel payment. .also they will be forced to pay for the Tv licence £170 .the government should have said you won’t have to pay the tv licence fee .that would have helped. Many people will die this winter. I used to think Thatcher was cruel. I think if could she would have got rid of of us all .iIreally worry about the poor folk’s that won’t survive this winter god bless you all
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I would love to share these excellent articles on Facebook but cannot find a link – are my old dimming eyes missing such a link or is there a way to do this ?
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I will never back Labour again in my now old age and I am a true Labour not to this bunch who lie and deceive also commit terrible stress to us elderly people and punish us with out these politicians having any concerns for the elderly who worked hard paid their dues raised decent families .well you the Labour government turned your back on us the best elderly people loyal to this country now you will lose the next election.i hope You suffer the consequences of your actions before then I have no doubt that your actions will punished
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I am absolutely disgusted about pensioners losing the fuel benefit. I don’t suppose anyone in the labour goverment will have to choose between keeping warm and eating this winter. The NHS hospitals will be full of pensioners with hypothermia or starvation so where’s the saving in that!
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I have autism and aspvergergas syndrome I need my ESA Beniffit and pip benefit with me having. Autism I get frustrated and get. Anxiety without my benefits
Darren Williams aka fonziedaz
I don’t use Facebook X as there not safe and I don’t like being judged
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Rachel Reeves’ grandparents must really love her – not. Is it all disabled pensioners she hates, or just those who have worked since year dot and live in the UK?
regards
Pauline Green
mcrstorm58@gmail.com
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