{"id":1031,"date":"2025-05-29T10:08:15","date_gmt":"2025-05-29T09:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jusmedia.co.uk\/riotandreason\/?p=1031"},"modified":"2025-06-05T12:29:04","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T11:29:04","slug":"winter-fuel-payment-pensioners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jusmedia.co.uk\/riotandreason\/2025\/05\/29\/winter-fuel-payment-pensioners\/","title":{"rendered":"Burning Money: Why the Winter Fuel Payment should never have been universal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Everyone should have a warm, safe place to call home – but heating a Surrey Hills mansion isn\u2019t cheap. The drawing room alone takes an age to warm. Then there\u2019s the Aga. And the sauna. So snatching \u00a3200-300 from the trembling hands of pensioners might be a bit cold. Now the all-inclusive cruise might have to wait until the spring.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Newsflash: The Winter Fuel Payment cut is being reversed! Well, in part at least. But a blanket payment to all the elderly shouldn\u2019t have even been an option. Of course, some people need, and definitely should be given the money to warm their homes, but it\u2019s not just pensioners shivering under their covers. In fact, chances are it’s not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Data from the Office for National Statistics<\/a> shows the average household wealth was 33 times higher with someone aged 65 to 74 heading it compared to the 16 to 24 age group. In fairness, there is a slight decline once you hit 75, but when the median household wealth tops half a million in the 65 to 74 age range, a couple of hundred quid is hardly going to send most pensioners into financial freefall.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This cut changed James and Margaret O\u2019Connor\u2019s views on politics in an unexpected way. Both in their eighties, after selling their four bedroom home in Essex, they now live with their daughter, Sarah, in Sutton, London. They are not currently eligible for the Winter Fuel Payment. James says: \u201cThe politicians know we are most likely to go out and vote. At first I was frustrated with the government for cutting the payment, but now I don\u2019t miss it. If anything it opened my eyes to how unfair it was in the first place. We always felt very fortunate to be given the payment, even though we didn\u2019t actually need it. It was a nice bonus to have, and no one likes to feel like something is being taken away from them, especially money. But once we realised it was a benefit that we were not relying on, it felt like more of a political tactic to sway our age group to vote a certain way rather than actually alleviate some of the problems we have here in Britain.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Sarah, James and Margaret O’Connor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Introduced in 1997, this automatic handout was reduced to those receiving qualifying, means-tested benefits last winter. The uproar from those that could probably spend the winter in their second – or third – holiday home would make you think they were reliving the Winter of Discontent. And what\u2019s worse, those living in most European countries could, and still can if they qualify, actually claim this payment to heat a home they’re not even using. It\u2019s probably being rented to a work shy millennial to be fair. And as this older age group keeps reminding us, sharing is caring. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s safe to say that taking this payment away from 9.3 million people went down like a cup of cold sick. Not even an Aga could warm that one up. Even Martin Lewis, patron saint of financial sanity, wasn\u2019t massively impressed. \u201cMany pensioners eke out the \u00a3100 to \u00a3300 Winter Fuel Payments to allow them to keep some heating on through the cold months,” he says. “While there’s an argument for ending its universality due to tight national finances, it’s being squeezed to too narrow a group.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And he\u2019s not wrong. The Department for Work and Pensions<\/a> estimated that in 2022-23, up to 760,000 households were not claiming the means-tested benefits they are entitled to, meaning they will now miss out on the Winter Fuel Payment too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t hate actually hate your gran – depriving people in need is wrong. Martin Lewis says: \u201cThe Government has a huge moral imperative to ensure the people eligible for Pension Credit who don’t get it are informed, educated and helped through the process. It is planning an awareness-raising campaign, but it needs to ensure that it reaches every corner.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So when Starmer eventually gives more clarity on this partial reversal, the public purse shouldn’t be emptied to fund another pensioner\u2019s Range Rover. Even Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said millionaires shouldn\u2019t get this payment again. Lib Dem leader and Surrey loyalist Ed Davey backs a full reversal though, predictably. \u201cWe are very lucky to not depend on this, and we have a lot of family support around us so that definitely helps,\u201d says Margaret. \u201cWe know some people who could definitely use this payment and have had it taken from them, so I don\u2019t agree with that at all. I\u2019m glad the Prime Minister has said he is reconsidering the payment, because I do think the current boundary is too harsh. But I am not expecting us to receive it again, nor do I think we should.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course it’s tragic that pensioners, or anyone for that matter, might be forced to choose between heating or eating. That’s hardly breaking news. But the idea of the p*ss poor pensioner doesn\u2019t match the reality. With the cost of living hitting everyone, funding should be driven by need, not nostalgia.<\/p>\n<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Everyone should have a warm, safe place to call home – but heating a Surrey Hills mansion isn\u2019t cheap. The drawing room alone takes an age to warm. Then there\u2019s the Aga. And the sauna. So snatching \u00a3200-300 from the trembling hands of pensioners might be a bit cold. Now the all-inclusive cruise might have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":1042,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[76,77,78],"class_list":["post-1031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-public-shit-show","tag-benefits","tag-government","tag-pensioners"],"yoast_head":"\nBurning Money: Why the Winter Fuel Payment should never have been universal - Riot and Reason<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Of course, some people need, and definitely should be given the money to warm their homes, but it\u2019s not just pensioners shivering.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jusmedia.co.uk\/riotandreason\/2025\/05\/29\/winter-fuel-payment-pensioners\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Burning Money: Why the Winter Fuel Payment should never have been universal - 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