Winter fuel cuts will still hit 600,000 disabled pensioners, Government analysis finds
Labour's winter fuel payment cuts will hit around 600,000 disabled pensioners' pockets, Government analysis has found.
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Sir Keir Starmer's controversial decision to cut the £300 payment to those earning £35,000 or less will see more than 2 million OAPs miss out.
One-in-four of those affected are disabled and will be forced to hand back the benefit via the tax system.
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After a previous U-turn earlier this year on the measure which had taken the payment away from millions more, the Prime Minister then set the income threshold for the energy help at £35,000.
However, critics say the threshold is too low, especially for disabled pensioners who have significantly higher expenses than the able-bodied.
Dennis Reed, of over-60s campaign group Silver Voices, told The Sunday Telegraph: “An annual income of £35,000 is not a king’s ransom under any circumstances – let alone for a disabled pensioner. This shows the crudeness of having a means-tested cut-off because it doesn’t take into account the individual circumstances.
“There are usually extra costs involved with having a disability. You might have to heat the house more than you otherwise would, or have to charge medical equipment such as electric wheelchairs, for example.”
Tory shadow pensions secretary Helen Whately said: “Under pressure, Labour lurched into a half-baked means test, causing yet more confusion and still leaving disabled pensioners in the cold.
“The system they’ve now designed is clumsy, complicated and ill-judged.”
The row over winter fuel payment cuts, introduced in Labour's first Autumn Budget last October, dominated Starmer's first year as Prime Minister.
Paul Johnson, former director of the influential Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), says the change is “messy” because a couple where one earns £100,000 and another £30,000 will receive the payment.
In contrast, a couple where each earn £36,000 would not.