Labour rebel: Fuel cut will kill pensioners
PENSIONERS will die from the cold if the Treasury pushes ahead with its winter fuel payments cut, a leading Labour rebel has warned.
Rachael Maskell, wrting for The Telegraph website, argued that being more exposed to low temperatures could increase the risk of stroke, heart attacks, pneumonia and hypothermia.
Her warning came amid growing unrest among some Labour MPS over Rachel Reeves’s decision to stop giving winter fuel payments to all pensioners in order to fill a “black hole” in the public finances. Instead, only those who claim pension credit will get the payments of between £200 to £300, meaning roughly 10 million pensioners will lose the money. More than a dozen Labour MPS have now voiced concerns about the proposals, with Sir Keir Starmer potentially facing a rebellion at a crunch vote scheduled for Tuesday.
Ms Maskell, the Labour MP for York Central, warns of the public health impact of ending universal fuel payments, saying: “We know that being cold leads to stroke, heart attacks, pneumonia, hyperthermia and so much more as the body wrestles to keep warm and virus prey on the frail.
“The epidemiological data drawn from Covid is a recent reminder as to why we need to protect those with
comorbidities, a feature of old age, and those with complex need. If cold and old, our resilience falls.”
Ms Maskell, who has for years been the chair of the All-party Parliamentary Group for Ageing and Older People, said some of her constituents are “frightened” and “in tears” over the policy.
She adds later: “MPS are hearing from pensioners in their constituencies, they are going through their budgets, and the sums are simply not adding up. In my own constituency, rents have risen by 11.9 per cent, £382 above the state pension. Many are frightened. Some are in tears.
“The concern that I and many colleagues have is that people will fall through the safety net. Last winter 4,950 people died because their homes were cold according to research by the UCL and the Institute of Health Equity based on data from the Office for National Statistics where 21.5 per cent of excess winter deaths are attributed to cold homes. The fear is that if we withdraw winter fuel payments for those in fuel poverty it will lead to excess deaths.
“It is these facts and the compassion of MPS for their constituents which is intuitively telling us that we need more mitigation before the Social Fund Winter Fuel Payment Regulations 2024 are debated in the House of Commons next Tuesday.”
Other Labour critics have raised similar points, with Diane Abbott tweeting yesterday: “Cutting winter fuel payments for pensioners is appalling. Old people will freeze this winter as a result.” A third Labour rebel told The Telegraph nothing short of a “complete U-turn” would be accepted.
The source said: “No one is saying this whole spending black hole can be wished away. But the money must come from the right people. Those pensioners aren’t the right people.”
An analysis by a pensions firm found this week that five out of six of these pensioners living in poverty are set to lose their winter fuel payment.
Ed Balls, the former Labour shadow chancellor, on Thursday warned that Ms Reeves needs an “escape route” from the policy before her Budget on Oct 31. Mr Balls, the former Labour cabinet minister whose wife Yvette Cooper is the home secretary, suggested on his Political Currency podcast the Treasury would somehow have to water down the policy. He said: “I don’t think you can do a U-turn, but what they need is an escape route. They need to find a creative way to do what they said they were going to do, close the in-year black hole, and find an alternative way to do it which could either be modifying what they’re doing on the winter allowance or finding some other way to close the black hole … I would be thinking creatively.”
He added about Ms Reeves: “I think she will have been given a list of things and told she has to do one of them, and I think she’s probably, in retrospect, quite annoyed at the Treasury for pushing her into an immediate decision like this. She may have felt, in retrospect, it was bad advice. And she’ll be acutely
‘This is one of those big cut-through issues which has real momentum. It unites the left and right’
aware of the politics, because the reality is this isn’t just a storm in a teacup. This is one of those big cut-through issues which has real momentum. It unites the left and the right.”
However government figures close to the policy insisted there would be no about-turn, with one source saying it remained a “done deal”.
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said the Government would not “play fast and loose” with the nation’s finances as she defended the decision to means test the payments. She told the BBC yesterday: “We have to make sure that we can fiscally be responsible, so that we can grow our economy, so that we can pay for our public services.”
She said the Government was taking action to support pensioners, with the household support fund extended to “help people who maybe are not entitled to pension credit, who are just above that threshold, who may struggle this winter”.