Seven out of 10 disabled pensioners to lose winter fuel payments, new government document reveals
14 September 2024, 07:48
Seven out of 10 disabled pensioners will lose their winter fuel payments, a new government document has revealed.
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The document, which was quietly released on Friday night, also showed that an estimated 780,000 pensioners still eligible to receive the winter fuel payment will lose the benefit under Labour's planned cuts.
It comes after Downing Street said that a full impact assessment of the change, coming into effect this year, has not been carried out.
The figures, published in response to a freedom of information request, are based on "equality analyses" which "are not impact assessments and not routinely published alongside secondary legislation", the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said.
It added that that while those with a disability will be disproportionately likely to retain the payment, "around 71% - 1.6 million - of people with a disability will still lose entitlement".
Read more: Keir Starmer defends scrapping winter fuel payments - as he warns autumn Budget will be 'painful'
Treasury Minister 'did not want to make decisions' like the winter fuel payment cut
Pensioners will only be entitled to the payout if they receive pension credit or certain other means-tested benefits - with around 10 million others set to be stripped of the allowance.
Some 880,000 people currently set to lose the benefit this year are pensioners entitled to pension credit who have not claimed it, according to the analysis.
The assessment assumes a 5 per cent "loss aversion" increase in pension credit take-up, which then cuts the number of eligible pensioners failing to claim to about 780,000.
The PM and Chancellor Rachel Reeves have insisted the move is necessary to help fill a "£22 billion black hole" in the public finances.
Starmer faces claims of ‘hiding’ impact on pensioners of winter fuel payment cut
Conservative Party chairman Richard Fuller said: "At the start of this week, Labour MPs marched through the lobbies to cover up the impact of the winter fuel cuts which will slash support for many pensioners in their own constituencies.
"This shocking new data, sneaked out by the government, now shows 780,000 people who should be entitled to the payment will lose out as will 1.6 million people with a disability."
He called on Labour to "immediately" conduct and publish a full impact assessment of "this harmful policy".
In 2017, Labour claimed Conservative plans to means-test the winter fuel allowance could lead to almost 4,000 deaths.
Pressed earlier on whether an impact assessment of the policy would be published, Sir Keir said: "There isn't a report on my desk which somehow we're not showing, that I'm not showing, as simple as that."
He said the government was not legally required to produce one.
