MPs have backed plans to massively scale back winter fuel support for pensioners – despite a significant chunk of the Labour benches refusing to lend their support.
The government faced a considerable rebellion on its controversial plans to means test the benefit, which would mean more than nine million pensioners losing out on between £200 and £300 each year to go towards heating their homes.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves said the cut was necessary to help fill a £22 billion ‘black hole’ in the country’s finances, discovered after the election.
Frontbench figures also argue it will simplify the scheme and ensure it is targeted where it’s needed most.
But several Labour MPs, including longest-serving female MP Diane Abbott, signalled they oppose the move ahead of a major vote on the issue today.
The Conservative motion criticised the government for the decision, saying it was ‘likely to lead to increased burdens on the National Health Service’.
Opposition MPs argued today that the changes to the Winter Fuel Payment were a ‘political choice’ after the government offered above-inflation pay rises to train drivers in an effort to resolve strikes.
It was unlikely that many Labour MPs who were against the decision would back a motion from the Tories, so all eyes were on the number of people who chose to abstain.
In the end, there were 228 votes in favour of the Conservative motion and 348 against.
There were 53 Labour MPs who did not register a vote, including Abbott, though several did so because they were unable to make it to the House of Commons for the vote.
However, there was also one who voted in favour of the motion: Normanton and Hemsworth MP Jon Trickett.
In a statement released after the vote, Trickett said: ‘I fear that removing the payment from pensioners will mean that many more will fall into poverty this winter.
‘We know that the consequences of pensioner poverty are devastating. It can even be a matter of life and death.’
He added that he had ‘worked behind the scenes’ to try and change ministers’ minds, but ‘to no avail’.
Caroline Abrahams, the Charity Director for Age UK, said the organisation was ‘deeply disappointed, but not surprised’ at today’s vote.
She said: ‘The reality is that driving through this policy as the government is doing will make millions of poor pensioners poorer still and we are baffled as to why some ministers are asserting that this is the right thing to do.
‘We and many others are certain that it is not, and that’s why we will continue to stand with the pensioners who can’t afford to lose their payment and campaign for them to be given more government support.’
The cut to the benefit will mean the only pensioners in England and Wales who receive support for winter fuel will be those on Pension Credit and certain other means-tested benefits.
Ministers have urged pensioners to check whether they are eligible for Pension Credit, as there are an estimated 880,000 people who could claim it but are not doing so.
A Downing Street spokesperson said that around 38,500 Pension Credit claims had been received in the five weeks since the Winter Fuel Payment announcement was first made – a take-up rate described as ‘miserably low’ by Age UK.
