EMMA LEWELL-BUCK MP: Winter Fuel Payments removal further harms those suffering fuel poverty

I share their concerns and have asked the Government to rethink this announcement.

The WFP is a universal payment of between £100-300 made to pensioners to help with heating bills.

I know it has proved invaluable, due to our colder climate, for many pensioners in South Shields.

In the UK, 1.28m older households already suffer from fuel poverty and it is estimated that last winter nearly 5,000 older people died directly from living in cold homes.

If these changes are implemented, it will mean that 15,200 pensioners in South Shields will no longer receive the payment. Only those eligible for Pension Credit will continue to receive it.

Yet only around 63% of pensioners eligible for Pension Credit claim it and 81% of pensioners in South Shields aren’t eligible for it in the first place.

I know that 81% of pensioners in South Shields are not the best-off in our country and linking the WFPs to Pension Credit means that pensioners with a modest income over £11,343 a year are excluded from the scheme.

With energy bills set to rise, a typical household will pay £149 more per year.

With the removal of WFP pensioners may be hit by a £450 shortfall just before winter.

I understand the argument that some of those who don’t need the payment are in receipt of it, that is why instead of scrapping the payment completely the Government should be looking at ways to ensure those who genuinely need the payment continue to receive it.

Such as rolling the winter fuel payment into the current state pension, meaning they are no-longer tax free, which allows the money to be taxed back from higher earners – up to 100% from the most well-off pensioners.

I want to assure my constituents that I am doing all I can so that the pensioners who rely on this payment continue to get it, they should not be the ones to pay the price for the economic mess our country has been left in.