Dear Mr. Chancellor:
I am bewildered, angry, stunned, and I am not alone.
His decision last month to deprive some ten million pensioners of their annual winter fuel payment has generated a wave of fury so white-hot that he simply cannot ignore it for another minute. It is not going away. It has reached nuclear levels and a reaction is needed.
You have made a mistake – you know it, I know it, many Labour MPs know it and the country knows it – and you must acknowledge it as soon as possible.
If he doesn’t, he will put off a whole generation from voting Labour again. Iron Chancellor? Prudent Chancellor? No, in the eyes of many pensioners he will be seen as a modern-day Cruella de Vil who saw them as people to be squeezed financially, like Cruella’s Dalmatians.
It is not the most auspicious start for you and your party, which in the run-up to the general election spoke reassuringly about retirees deserving “retirement security”.
“You have made a mistake. You know it, I know it, many Labour MPs know it and the country knows it. You need to recognise that as soon as possible.” Pictured: Chancellor Rachel Reeves
‘In the eyes of many retirees, you will be seen as a modern-day Cruella de Vil who saw them as people who needed to be squeezed financially, like Cruella’s Dalmatians.’
Indeed, you may recall a video clip of your boss, Sir Keir Starmer, speaking movingly about a conversation he had with an 84-year-old pensioner in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire.
She said she stayed in bed until midday during the winter to save on her heating bills. “It’s a terrible position to put a pensioner in,” she opined (it’s still on social media if you want to check it out).
By removing winter fuel payments (which can be worth up to £300) from all but the most hard-pressed pensioners, they have injected insecurity into millions of households across the country.
It’s a shame, especially with double-digit increases in energy bills looming. For some pensioners like Mrs Dewsbury, it may mean spending more time in bed again this winter, being cold or cutting back on hot meals.
“Pensioners, already facing ever-rising food bills and sky-high insurance premiums, deserve much more from a Labour government.” Pictured: Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer
Pensioners, already struggling with ever-rising food bills and sky-high insurance premiums, deserve much more from a Labour government.
Never in more than 30 years of writing about personal finance issues for this newspaper have I witnessed such anger from the country’s splendid army of retirees.
Unlike the suspension of the triple-lock guarantee on state pensions in April 2022, which pensioners quietly accepted due to the severe impact of COVID and lockdown on the UK economy, its restriction of winter fuel payments to those in receipt of pension credit (and other benefits) has been met with universal disapproval. No, I’m being too kind. Open hostility.
A petition launched by charity Age UK calling for the changes to be halted has already attracted 420,000 supporters.
The charity estimates that up to two million pensioners will be materially affected by the restrictions it is placing on eligibility for winter fuel payments.
These retirees, the charity says, comprise three groups:
- Those on low incomes simply lose their pension credit.
- Those with high energy demands due to disability or illness.
- And the nearly one million seniors who are eligible for the pension credit but don’t apply for it for a variety of reasons (pride, not having online access or finding the application overwhelming).
Meanwhile, hundreds of readers have contacted Money Mail since its announcement late last month to express their anger. “Spiteful”, “disgusted”, “indignant” and “insensitive” are adjectives that appear frequently in their messages.
So, Chancellor, what on earth prompted you to launch this vicious financial attack on the country’s pensioners?
When he announced the winter fuel payment cut in the House of Commons last month, he placed the blame squarely on the previous Conservative government, which he said had left a gaping £22bn hole in the public finances. This hole, he said, was the reason why the winter fuel payment cut would also be followed by the removal of the £86,000 welfare cap in October next year – another blow to pensioners who need expensive long-term care in old age.
Explaining the restriction on fuel payments in winter, you said: ‘This is not a decision I wanted to make, nor is it one I expected to make.
“But these are the necessary and urgent decisions I must take.” However, neither I nor many Money Mail readers believe him.
We do not believe that either the cut to winter fuel payments (saving £1.4bn this year) or the removal of the cap on adult social care (£1.1bn a year by 2026) have had anything to do with shoring up the nation’s finances.
As Andrew Neil eloquently explained in yesterday’s Daily Mail, the bulk of the £22bn “black hole” was not a result of former Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s alleged mismanagement of the economy’s finances.
It was rather a matter of rewarding members of their paymasters (the unions) with wage premiums that would combat inflation.
For a start, NHS workers (working from home), civil servants, police officers and members of the armed forces (and, in recent weeks, train drivers and, no doubt, in the coming weeks, members of the belligerent Rail, Maritime and Transport Union).
Yes, some of these workers deserved decent pay rises, but not all of them, especially those who caused chaos in the lives of ordinary people by striking whenever they felt like it.
I (and many readers) believe that you attacked retirees in the pocketbook because you saw them as an easy target, a segment of the population that you thought would accept the loss of winter fuel payments with good grace and for the greater good of the country.
Well, you were wrong on that count. You underestimated his ability to see beyond a massive financial injustice.
I am also convinced that when he made his statement to the House of Commons on 29 July he wanted to live up to his portrayal as the Iron Chancellor.
“We need to go back to the drawing board, listen to people like Age UK and pensioner advocates like Baroness Altmann, and come up with fairer reform,” says Jeff Prestridge.
You did so by announcing benefit and spending cuts that few commentators had expected (they, myself included, all thought you would wait until your Budget at the end of October).
Pensioners were convenient sacrificial lambs, although there were many other areas of public spending where cuts could have been made without causing a stir – for example, foreign aid to countries such as China, India and Malaysia.
It is good that in recent days your government has said it will launch a publicity campaign for the pension credit to boost acceptance of the benefit, which in turn will trigger automatic payments for winter fuel to selected applicants.
This will include a “week of action” for pension credits next month, but it remains to be seen whether it will be successful: similar campaigns in the past have largely proved ineffective.
What makes much more sense is to suspend the reduction in winter fuel payments for a year.
Go back to the drawing board, listen to the likes of Age UK and pensioner advocates like Baroness Altmann, and deliver fairer reform.
An alternative that takes the payment away from those who clearly don’t need it (e.g. higher rate taxpayers) and keeps it for those who depend on it.
If they did, they would gain great respect and be true to Labour’s long-standing commitment to social justice.
PS: Iron Chancellors are allowed to listen.
See: gov.uk/pension-credit/How to claim and petition at: ageuk.org.uk
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