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.