Chancellor shafts struggling pensioners

In order to balance the public finances, Chancellor Rachel Reeves has decided to target pensioners, by limiting the Winter Fuel Allowance to only those on means-tested benefits, whereas previously it was a universal benefit paid to all above retirement age.

To be fair to the Chancellor, many people including myself, have long been of the opinion that this should not be a universal benefit. There are a lot of people in this country above retirement age who simply do not need the £300 every year that the Government gives them towards their energy bills. A form of means testing in order to cut the cost, on the face of it, is certainly a sensible suggestion, and entirely justifiable given the state of the public finances at this time.

However, to restrict it to only those receiving universal credit or pension credits is taking far too extreme an approach. The result will be a huge financial blow to millions of pensioners who sit just above the threshold for benefits payments, but who are genuinely struggling to make ends meet.

Money saving guru martin Lewis was quick to criticise the policy, stating on his social media pages:

“The targeting of Winter Fuel payments is too narrow with the Winter we have coming. Pensioners are already due to get less as this will be the first time since Winter 2022 they haven’t got the £300 extra Winter fuel cost-of-living top-up…

Many pensioners eke out the £100 to £300 Winter Fuel payments to allow them to keep some heating on through the cold months. While there’s an argument for ending it’s universality… it’s being squeezed to too narrow a group… yet again, those just above the threshold will be hardest hit.”

The warning signs were there pre-election… we were warned that, when Labour made a pledge not to raise taxes on working people, they had backed themselves into a corner that would inevitably result in them going after pensioners. The expectation at least was that they would target “rich” pensioners… however, this policy will hit the poorest the most, something that is traditionally not very Labour-like!

It has led to widespread anger amongst the British public, with many life-long Labour voters stating they would not vote for this Government again, and branding Labour the “new nasty party”. As one disabled pensioner, who admitted to having voted Labour all of their life when calling into Carol Vorderman’s LBC show put it… “even the Tories didn’t do this!”

This could very well be the first of the thousand cuts that kill this Labour Government over the course of the next 5 years. They have put themselves in a difficult position with this one… the policy has proved immediately unpopular with the electorate, and drawn significant criticism from poverty and age-related charities. If they ignore the criticism and stick to their guns, they will deliver savings for the Treasury, but at the expense of votes at the next election.

However, if they U-turn on this, their first real policy announcement, then it paves the way for 5 years of intense media pressure any time they announce a policy. Much like we saw with the ousting of Boris Johnson following ‘Partygate’, once the media get a sniff that they can influence Government policy-making, they are like a dog with a bone.

So not only might this policy prove a significant early misstep for this Labour Government, but it may well lead to even more tricky times ahead.