Herts County Council calls on Government to restore winter fuel payments for all pensioners
As Hertfordshire residents prepare for temperatures to drop and energy bills to rise, the county council has called on the Government to reinstate winter fuel payments for 9.9 million pensioners.
Until now, the allowance – worth between £200 and £300 a year – has been available to all OAPs to help with heating costs. However, Labour has decided to restrict the payment to 1.5 million who are on low incomes and receive specific benefits.
On Tuesday (October 15) a meeting of the Conservative-controlled county council backed a motion highlighting concerns about the move.
It said the Department for Work and Pensions was struggling to cope with the complex claims, “causing more anxiety amongst the most vulnerable”.
It also suggested the change could impact the health of older people. If only a small number “decide to eat and not to heat”, said the motion, more vulnerable older people will need social care or end up in hospital. In that case, it suggested, “there will be no saving to the country at all”.
Proposing the motion, Cllr Tony Kingsbury, HCC’s executive member for adult care, health and wellbeing, said the policy would have “devastating consequences for some of the most vulnerable of our community”.
For many elderly people, the payment was the difference between living in warmth and safety or enduring “cold, uncomfortable and sometimes dangerous conditions”, he said.
For some, removal of the winter fuel payments could mean the “impossible choice” between heating and eating – which for the elderly and vulnerable, could be a matter of life and death.
While acknowledging that some pensioners may not need this support, Cllr Kingsbury pointed to those living just above the £11,300 threshold.
He highlighted the link between cold homes and the higher risk of illnesses such as pneumonia, heart disease and stroke.
He pointed to an impact assessment in 2007 that suggested removing the payment could cause 4,000 additional winter deaths.
Cllr Kingsbury said: “This will place additional pressure on already overstretched healthcare services as well as this council’s adult care services at a time of the year when resources are most strained.
“The cost of hospitalisations, long-term treatments and home care could far outweigh the cost of maintaining the winter fuel payment.
“This decision is not only short-sighted from a moral standpoint but also perhaps from a fiscal one.
“Removal of this support with little notice will deepen inequality and leave those already struggling with the cost of living to shoulder these greater burdens.”
Urging all councillors to back the motion, Cllr Kingsbury said: “We must send a strong message to the Government that this decision is unacceptable. We cannot allow our elderly and vulnerable residents to be left out in the cold.”
The motion was backed by Liberal Democrat councillors, but Labour members abstained from the vote.
Labour group leader Cllr Nigel Bell referred to the “black hole of £22 billion in our country’s finances”.
He suggested there had been a “lack of honesty” from previous ministers about the economic legacy left for their successors.
He pointed to ongoing work pushing for additional mitigation measures but admitted he would have preferred the decision on winter fuel payments had not been made.
“Clearly, some very difficult decisions are having to be made across the economy, and on the winter fuel change I would much prefer these hadn’t been made,” said Cllr Bell.
“And we are pushing – and I know MPs and others are pushing – for more mitigating measures to be brought forward to help those who may miss out. And there is lots of work I know going on.”
Cllr Steve Jarvis, leader of the council’s Lib Dem group, also acknowledged the “significant problem” with public finances. However, he said he did not believe the Government’s proposal was acceptable.
He acknowledged the argument that many pensioners did not need the winter fuel allowance. But he said the Government had gone to the extreme where only the very poorest pensioners will receive the payment.
“I think the Government have done the wrong thing here,” he said. “I think they may have done something different, more slowly and in a considered way that we might have been able to support. But what they have done in a hurry is not the right thing to do.”
Cllr Jarvis said it was important to encourage those who are eligible to claim Pension Credit. He said there were some “interesting figures” that suggested that if they all did, the amount the Government would save through this process “wouldn’t be anywhere near what they are setting out to save”.
As well as calling for the winter fuel payment to be reinstated, the motion called for a “coherent plan” for the wider challenge of caring for an ageing population.
It also called for a “long-term funding future” for the Household Support Fund and for the council to promote Pension Credit help.