LLA concerned by means tested winter fuel payments

Later Life Ambitions is concerned by the Government’s expressed intention to end universal eligibility of the Winter Fuel Payment for pensioners. The decision to exclude retirees not receiving Pension Credit and/or other means tested benefits from receiving the Winter Fuel Payment risks endangering many pensioners next winter.

The Department for Work and Pensions estimates that up to 850,000 pensioners nationwide fail to claim Pension Credit. There are many reasons for this: some simply don’t know about Pension Credit or don’t think they are entitled to it; others have been left behind by our increasingly digital-first world. Others still choose not to claim Pension Credit out of generational pride.

Those in later life are more susceptible to the cold, and it is known that warm homes are beneficial to health. Ensuring that older people are housed in warm homes thus helps ease the burden the National Health Service faces each winter. Keeping pensioners warm is therefore not only a humane thing to do, but one that benefits the whole of society.

With an ageing population living in ageing – and often poorly insulated – housing stock, the Government’s position once again highlights the need for better quality homes, not just for older people but for all in society. A key ask in the Later Life Ambitions Pensioners’ Manifesto is that local authorities are given greater powers to compel developers to meet minimum standards, which meet local needs.

Eamonn Donaghy, Chief Executive of the National Federation of Occupational Pensioners and Later Life Ambitions spokesperson, said: “By the Department for Work and Pensions’ own admission, far too many pensioners are failing to claim their Pension Credit fail entitlement. Either the Government needs to devise a form of autoenrollment for Pension Credit, or it needs to rethink its strategy.

“Later Life Ambitions has welcomed much of the new Government’s early action, not least its well-intentioned decision to review private sector pension schemes. We also understand the reasons why the Government must now cut expenditure. Nevertheless, we believe it is both concerning and wrong to seek to stabilise public expenditure by depriving pensioners of warm homes.

“Cold homes are yet another symptom of Britain’s declining quality of housing. With the cost of living still high, surely our pensioners deserve better than to go cold this winter?”