Winter Fuel Payment cuts could impact thousands more deaths this year, Wales’ older people’s commissioner has said.
Rhian Bowen-Davies has urged UK ministers to reverse the decision which is estimated to affect around 10 million pensioners.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) benefit was previously available to everyone above the state pension age in the UK. Chancellor Rachel Reeves has changed the rules this year, and only state pensioners on means-tested benefits will qualify.
The Winter Fuel Payment helps pensioners with heating bills during the winter, providing between £100 and £300 to those who meet the criteria.
Ms Bowen-Davies said: « People will feel the impact of this. We know that this could impact on 4,000 additional deaths this winter. »
Charity Independent Age has called on the Government to delay implementing the cuts until an impact assessment has been carried out.
New research from Independent Age and YouGov found that 49 percent of older people in England who will lose their Winter Fuel Payment said they were planning to only heat and spend time in one room.
Simon Francis, coordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, commented: « The new figures confirm that many older people will now start to develop unsafe behaviours as a result of the Winter Fuel Payment cuts, including limiting themselves to living in one room of their homes during the winter. »
Mr Francis noted that, until the Government fully implements its plans to improve insulation and ventilation of buildings and stabilise energy costs, « vulnerable households will continue to need financial support. »
He added: “That’s why the Winter Fuel Payments were so important, the money provided helps older households stay warm each winter. Sadly, now more older people are expected to live in cold damp homes this winter and this puts them at greater risk of ill health, meaning the costs to the NHS will soar.”
Caroline Simpson, spokesperson at campaign group Warm This Winter said: “Over half a million people from all walks of life have voiced their fears about the Winter Fuel Payments being axed through petitions. We urge the Government to listen to them with a delay this winter so the impact can be properly assessed and help given to those pensioners who will not cope without it.
“We know the majority of people in the UK support an affordable, social tariff which would help the most vulnerable such as families, the ill and the 6.5 million in fuel poverty, funded by the wider energy industry who are raking in billions in profits while we are all paying 60 percent more on our energy bills since the start of the crisis.”
Ms Simpson urged the Government to “get on with” the important initiative of insulating homes, which she argues is “the quickest way” to reduce bills.
Others warn senior citizens are not the only ones who will suffer from increased bills. Nearly a quarter of Britons will be forced to support their elderly parents with heating bills this winter, according to research from Intuit Credit Karma.
They’re expected to shell out an average of £315 to bridge the gap between their pension allowance and fuel bills. One in five (21 percent) said they will have to decide between helping their elderly relatives and heating their own homes this winter.
Independent Age has launched an open letter to the Government, which people can sign, to “take a stand” against the changes. So far, the letter has garnered more than 23,000 signatures.
Pension expert Helen Morrissey, head of retirement analysis at investment firm Hargreaves Lansdown said she does not think Chancellor Rachel Reeves will change course during this month’s Autumn Budget but « one thing that could perhaps happen is to maybe soften it around the edges a bit ».
She said that could include some kind of support for people who « don’t quite qualify for pension credit ».
Ms Reeves will unveil the new Government’s Autumn Budget on Wednesday, October 30.
