According to the government’s own assessment, around 780,000 of these people are expected to be eligible for Pension Credit but not to apply for it, meaning they are among the poorest people in the country. People experiencing digital exclusion and loneliness are likely to find it particularly hard to apply for a new benefit in time, as will disabled older people living with learning difficulties or mental distress, making the changes extremely regressive. Thousands more older people have incomes fractionally above the Pension Credit cut-off of £218.15 per week and will also be dropped into dangerous fuel poverty. The High Level Equality Analysis from the Department for Work and Pensions found that 1.6 million disabled people – 70% of disabled people currently receiving the Winter Fuel Payment – will lose it under the new rules. These people face intersectional disadvantage: being older and being disabled are both associated with higher needs for heating, which are not accounted for under the new system.
The Winter Fuel Payment was designed as a universal benefit for a reason – to mitigate the higher home energy costs older people face and prevent them from being disadvantaged financially due to their age, which is a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010. The Disability Poverty Campaign Group is extremely concerned that such a major change to policy was pushed through so quickly, without adequate scrutiny. Neither the Treasury nor the Department for Work and Pensions has conducted an Equality Impact Assessment of the change.
The government has argued that a full Equality Impact Assessment is not needed because “no, or no significant, impact on the private, public or voluntary sectors is foreseen.” This conclusion is thoroughly inadequate. The Prime Minister has acknowledged that the policy will lead to increased winter deaths among older people. It will also cause more hospitalisations, with potential for a substantial impact on an already strained NHS. It is also highly likely that it will cause an increase in non-payment of fuel bills, impacting the private sector, and on demand for support provided by the voluntary sector, for example through food and energy banks.
The Disability Poverty Campaign Group is calling for a full national Equality Impact Assessment of recent changes to social security, to expose the cumulative impact of repeated cuts on disabled people, as well as people with other protected characteristics. At a minimum, a full Equality Impact Assessment of the changes to the Winter Fuel Payment must be conducted immediately. The change should be reversed, and effective mitigation must be put in place to deal with its outcomes in the short term.