It is wrong to assume all pensioners have rainy day saving – winter fuel payment must stay_l
Labour will end the annual Winter Fuel Payment, denying 10 million pensioners as much as £300 to heat their homes during the coldest months of the year, on September 16
One of the things about getting older is that the pigeons come home to roost. If you’ve had a successful career, earned well and built up decent savings, later life can be a time of fantastic opportunity and adventure – at least as long as you stay fit and well.
But if you reach your State Pension age with only a small income to live on, plus a modest occupational pension and limited ‘rainy day money’, then later life feels a lot less secure. And, of course, some pensioners aren’t even this well off.
Truly there is no such thing as a typical pensioner, or a typical pensioner lifestyle. We live in a highly unequal society and nowhere is that more obvious than within our older population, a huge and growing group of some twelve million, from billionaires at one extreme, to older people who struggle every day to make ends meet, at the other.
This is the context against which the Government has decided to means-test Winter Fuel Payment. We know affluent older people won’t miss it, but for their counterparts who are barely scraping by, this loss of £200 or £300 will be a real body blow.
For them, the decision already spells deep anxiety about how they will afford to keep their home warm, as well as putting food on the table. They are forever dreading a domestic disaster like a major appliance breaking, because they know they can’t replace it.
In our experience at Age UK, most are determined not to go into debt and make every possible sacrifice to avoid it, even if it means spending long periods in bed to stay warm, or eating sandwiches rather than hot meals. If fit enough they may ride public transport or go to the local library to feel their heat – but of course, in the end they will still return to a cold home.
Even writing this is soul-destroying, so spare a thought for all the older people who find themselves in this kind of bind. In short, life offers them very little to look forward to.
Some economists oppose means-testing because it is ‘inefficient’, in that it gives money to people who don’t need it. But others, including me, say it’s the price we pay for the certainty of knowing those who depend on it definitely receive it, with all the hope and comfort that brings.
