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Many readers back the government’s decision to cut payment, saying they didn’t need the money, but others say it has made life harder
When Colin Anderson moved home to Devon after 30 years in London, he was looking forward to a quiet retirement close to where he had grown up. A council tenant all his life, he privately rented a small bungalow near Newton Abbot, where he could just about afford to live comfortably alone after the death of his partner.
When his rent was raised sharply twice, however, it reached £1,100 a month – more than his entire state pension. He was left with £200 a month from his private pension to cover food, clothing and everything else. The removal this year of his winter fuel payment has tipped a challenging existence into a thoroughly dispiriting one.
“It sounds a bit sad, and it probably is – but it’s like the joy went out of my life,” said 68-year-old Anderson of his current financial situation. “I used to enjoy going to the pub, having a few drinks. I used to take my mother out for a coffee and a scone in the local department store once a week. I can’t do any of those things now. It’s just a question of feeding yourself and keeping yourself warm in the best way that you can.”
Anderson is one of almost 10 million pension-age people who previously received the extra fuel payment from the government, but who won’t get it this year. The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, announced in July that she would restrict the previously universal payment of £200 (or £300 to the over 80s) to those who get pension credit, saying the country couldn’t afford to give well-off pensioners a handout. It has encouraged those eligible for pension credit to claim it.
But many, like Anderson, say they can’t afford to heat their homes without it – and that not all pensioners are comfortable property owners who have paid off their mortgages. Charities warn that millions are anxious about keeping warm, while even the government’s own figures suggest 100,000 pensioners could be forced into poverty because of the cut.
As temperatures drop across the UK, we asked Guardian readers who had lost the payment to share their own perspectives.
Among more than 170 responses, there were dozens who said they didn’t need the money and that the government had done the right thing in targeting it to those most in need. “Do you mean the winter wine allowance?” asked one respondent with tongue in cheek.
“We looked into whether we could hand it back [in previous years], and were told that we couldn’t, so we tended to give it to charity,” said John Belfield, 72, who lives with his wife, Jane, in King’s Lynn – both are retired teachers. “We felt that it should go to people who needed it, which is not us.
“I mean, it’s several billion pounds of money that was chucked at wealthy pensioners, and it’s just not necessary.”
He acknowledged “teething problems” with the scheme, and believed the government had mishandled the policy’s announcement. “Yes, there have been some naive things, but nothing on the scale of the corruption that we’ve had over the last few years. I think we just have to give [the government] time, they’ve got another four and a half years to do something. I think in the long term, it will settle.”
It’s a view broadly shared by Pamela Hadfield, who retired to Manchester with her husband after a career in IT. “It’s nice when somebody gives you a few hundred pounds, but I can’t get upset about losing it,” she said. Hadfield is irritated by “everybody getting so upset about losing this money, when 95% of those people didn’t need it, just like me”.
“All this fuss is absolutely ridiculous – we should be thinking more about how thirtysomethings like my kids are struggling,” she said.
Many others, however, said the WFA’s removal had been a big blow. “I’m frightened to put the heating on,” said Sandra, 69, who lives alone in Merseyside, and is just ineligible for the payment thanks to a small pension from her previous work in local government.
“My house is freezing. I have layers and throws on me, obviously, but I have arthritis badly, and the cold does make it worse.” It was 11C in her house as she spoke. “I’m trying to keep it off, and then I’m thinking, well, it’s cold. I’ve got to put it on for a little more. But I’m really using it so sparsely.”
She feels bitterly let down by the Labour government, she said. “I’ve been a Labour supporter all my life, I’ve never voted anything else but Labour. I will never, ever vote Labour again, because I feel like they’ve sold us out.”
Kathleen in Middleton, Manchester, has a similar story. As a retired teacher who lives alone with her two dogs, she said she stays in bed late, showers less and has stopped using her tumble dryer and oven in an effort to keep her bills low. Her thermostat is set at 10 so her pipes don’t freeze. She too is aggrieved at the government and says she is now tempted to vote Reform.
“I didn’t last time, I thought it was too extreme. But I actually think we need somebody that’s out of the mainstream and prepared to do something a bit different, because Labour are just the Tories in another name.”
Anderson argued that those pensioners who rented privately, or who paid council tax alone, should receive the payment, and said: “I have faith that Labour will eventually do the right thing.”
Ministers have said that many of those who have lost out will be compensated by coming hikes to the state pension. “That may be the case,” said Anderson, “but there are a lot of elderly people who need help now, and we’re nowhere near the worst of the winter yet.”
‘The joy went out of my life’: the pensioners struggling after loss of winter fuel payment
