Pension Credit is a means-tested benefit for people over State Pension age with low incomes. Other means tested benefits include income support and universal credit.
The chancellor pointed to spending cuts being necessary due to a £22bn black hole in the public finances. She said it was a “difficult decision” which she did not expect or want to make, but that it was urgent.
The £3bn cut means that the Winter Fuel Payment will now not be paid to all pensioners, leaving millions of older Disabled people, who don’t receive benefits but are nevertheless on extremely low incomes, with no help at all to meet their higher energy costs over the winter.
Disabled pensioners are 45% of all pensioners. Almost 80% of those aged 85 or over are Disabled people. The decision to cut Winter Fuel Payments will leave millions of older Disabled people without any financial assistance with the extra costs of heating, required to stay safe and healthy.
Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK said: “We strongly oppose the means-testing of Winter Fuel Payment because our initial estimate is that as many as two million pensioners who badly need the money to stay warm this winter will not receive it and will be in trouble as a result – yet at the other end of the spectrum well-off older people will scarcely notice the difference – a social injustice.”
Dan White policy and campaigns officer at DR UK and one of the leads at the Disability poverty Campaign Group said: “This announcement could not have come at a worst time. We know the energy price cap is likely to rise this October and stay high across the winter. This will keep energy bills high and completely unaffordable for the most financially vulnerable.”
“Cutting support is archaic, it will see many pensioners, many of whom are Disabled people, struggling to heat their homes and power their essential equipment.”
“With the last Government ending all cost-of-living payments, no progress on an energy social tariff and the reductions in eligibility for the Warm Home Discount, the Government is currently proposing no financial support to millions of older Disabled people on low incomes, to help them through the winter.”
“We urge the Government to think again and to bring forward proposals to support all Disabled people in poverty, to meet their energy costs.”