Charities working with older people have broadly welcomed the shift in Government policy on Winter Fuel Payments, but say great clarity of the finer detail proposed is now needed.

Independent Age Head of Influencing at Independent Age Amy Dodge said: “We welcome the Prime Minister’s announcement on the Winter Fuel Payment today. Linking the entitlement to Pension Credit was misguided, and meant far too many older people on low incomes fell through the cracks.

“Since the changes were announced last July, we have been urging the UK Government to widen the eligibility criteria so that more older people in financial hardship are supported.

“While this news will bring some relief to older people on a low income who lost the Winter Fuel Payment, there will still be a period of uncertainty and anxiety until details about who is eligible are clearly announced and detailed.

“At a time when higher bills and rising inflation are stretching budgets to breaking point, older people on low incomes need reassurance that they will be supported to heat their home next winter and beyond.

“The UK Government must provide clarity and act now.  We can’t have a repeat of last winter where millions of older people were left in the cold.”  

Caroline Abrahams, Charity Director at Age UK said: “We welcome the PM’s comments and his commitment to change, but of course the devil is always in the detail, and we postpone judgement until we hear more.

“Means-testing Winter Fuel Payment in the way the Government announced last summer resulted in many pensioners on low incomes missing out on money they simply couldn’t afford to lose and at Age UK we saw the results in the winter just gone: very significant numbers of older people too frightened to turn on their heating when it was cold, making life utterly miserable for them and putting their health at risk.

“If nothing changes, next winter threatens to be just as bad, so we welcome the Government’s acknowledgement that it would be unacceptable to repeat such a situation ever again.”

 “We will judge the success of any new policy proposals the Government brings forward by the extent to which they help vulnerable older people and those on low and modest incomes to be able to heat their homes adequately next winter.

A social tariff for energy may be a big part of the longer term answer but in the short term, the Government must act quickly to support pensioners next winter – which may feel a long way off but is really only six months away.”

Dr Carole Easton OBE, Chief Executive at the Centre for Ageing Better, said: “Our own research has shown that more than 2.5 million pensioners, living on incomes insufficient to support a dignified standard of living, were stripped of their Winter Fuel Payments by government changes brought in last year.  

“As a charity we recognise there is a case to be made for removing this universal right from pensioners who don’t need a Winter Fuel Payment. But the government went too far in restricting the payments to people eligible for Pension Credit which ultimately meant removing support from people who desperately need it. 

“This was a poor decision on a human level, creating an avoidable crisis by removing a valued support away from millions. But it was also a poor decision on a financial level as the savings made from reducing the number of payments were likely to be undone by the increased pressures on health services from older people living in homes they couldn’t afford to heat to an adequate level.” 

Analysis by the Centre for Ageing Better in December revealed that more than 2.5 million pensioners who have been stripped of their Winter Fuel Payments struggle by on an income below the standard required for a dignified standard of living.  Our analysis revealed one in four (25%) people aged 65 and over were deemed too wealthy for help with their energy bills by the government but too poor to live a dignified life according to the Minimum Income Standard (MIS) established by poverty experts and the general public.   

The MIS provides a living standards benchmark for what the public agree is needed to live in dignity and the income required to meet this standard. 

Added Carole Easton: “In the short-term, the government should look to widen the eligibility criteria for Winter Fuel Payments to include more pensioners on low incomes. But in the longer-term, we also need to see more action from government to tackle the underlying fundamentals to this issue, that we have some of the highest energy bills and least energy efficient homes in Europe.”