Anger over "dreadful" cuts to winter fuel payments in Coventry
A resident says her elderly neighbours will struggle.
A Coventry resident has been left furious over how cuts to winter fuel payments will hit her elderly neighbours. A couple aged 95 and 100 will not get this year’s £300 as their income is just above the new limit, she said.
The husband and wife, one of whom is a carer for the other, are “not rich” and have a lot of outlay because of their age, she added. They will be struggling with winter energy costs which have gone up 10%, she told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS.)
The woman who is also a pensioner and wished to stay anonymous said it is “wrong” that the support payment will be taken away under government cuts. “I am really really upset about it and I am angry,” she said.
“I think it’s dreadful, absolutely dreadful. It’s like Dickens, we are going back to Scrooge.”
The woman said it “broke her heart” to think that her neighbour would have “another worry,” after learning in passing that the couple would not get the payment under the new government policy. She added: “The more I thought about it the more angry I became.
“They have been through the war. How could they take money that this couple had been expecting away?”
The winter fuel payment was brought in 27 years ago to help pensioners pay for heating when the weather is colder. But millions of older people in England and Wales will not get it this year.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced cuts to the payments in July, saying these are needed to help plug a £22bn black hole in the government’s budget. Under the new rules only pensioners who receive means tested benefits will get the payment.
The change is opposed by older people’s charity Age UK which claims two million pensioners will be “seriously hit” by the cut. Their petition calling on the government to halt the move, due to come into force on September 16, has almost 480,000 signatures.
Opposition political groups have also criticised the move including the Conservatives who tabled an early day motion calling for the rules to be “annulled.” Locally, the Coventry Conservatives warn that some 46,000 pensioners in the city face being means tested for the payment, and 40,000 could lose the support.
At a council meeting today, 3 September, the group will call for Labour-run Coventry council to write to the Chancellor urging a review of the decision. They also want the council to run a campaign to people in the city to check their eligibility for pension credits.
Leader Cllr Gary Ridley said: “These cuts to the Winter Fuel Allowance are a direct attack on our pensioners, forcing them to choose between heating their homes and putting food on the table. This isn’t fiscal responsibility—it’s cruel and unnecessary.”