Reeves Scraps Winter Fuel Payments for 10 Million Pensioners to Fund Public Sector Wage Rise
Rachel Reeves is to scrap winter fuel payments for 10 million pensioners and ditch a cap on social care costs to fund a public sector wage rise, it has been announced. The Telegraph has more.
The Chancellor’s decision leaves millions of retirees worse-off and means tens of thousands of elderly Britons now face the prospect of selling their homes to foot their care bills.
It came as Ms. Reeves announced she would make £5.5bn in savings this year as she claimed the Tories had left a £22bn hole in the public finances.
The bulk of this includes a £9.4bn pay settlement that will be made to public sector workers this year.
However, this does not include a 22% settlement for junior doctors announced on Monday.
Planned savings include restricting winter fuel payments to people already claiming means-tested benefits.
In a major departure from previous Labour manifesto pledges, Ms. Reeves said it was “fair and right” to withhold the payment from millions of pensioners.
Labour had called for payments to be restricted in 2015, when Ed Miliband was leader and Ms. Reeves was Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary. However, Jeremy Corbyn pledged to keep it.
Last month, a Labour spokesman insisted the party had “no plans” to change the policy.
Scrapping the payments means almost 10m pensioners are set to lose out for the first time. Ms. Reeves will also order departments to make in-year savings.
Currently, all 11.4m pensioners receive an extra £200 to help heat their homes every winter, with people aged over 80 receiving a blanket £300 payment.
Ms. Reeves also opened the door to billions of pounds of additional tax rises this autumn when she delivers her maiden Budget on October 30th. She hinted that pensioners could face more pain. …
Ms. Reeves’ move is expected to hit the majority of pensioners and save £1.4bn this year and £1.5bn next year. It means only 1.5m households will receive the payments going forward.
She also announced Labour would ditch social care reforms recommended by economist Sir Andrew Dilnot more than a decade ago.
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So Reeves is dismayed at the financial black hole left by the Tories, thereby necessitating harsh – somewhat brutal – measures to claw back or save money.
I’m wracking my brain but I can’t recollect one instance when the alleged opposition party of labour louts remonstrated with the Conservatives about their constant and sometimes fraudulent waste of money during the scaremongering scamdemic. No, they were cheering their BFF on the other side of the House, pushing for harder and longer measures and restrictions on the public who pay their damn wages!
All the political parties did their best to see off the elderly, pushing the faux vaccines, Do not resuscitate policies and denial of timely and appropriate medical / health care. Now they further that aim by denying a significant number of some warmth and hot water during the bitter winter months.
Shame on the lot of the rancid parasites in parliament. Shame on them.
Not to mention the Blackouts when the grid is compromised by wind & solar. But supporting Ukraine is guaranteed come what May!
Terrific post ellie.
Thanks 🙂
Net Zero is designed to impoverish us and if that isn’t enough to send pensioners to an early grave then Labour will give them an extra little shove with the scrapping of the fuel allowance. While Miliband and the phony planet savers pretend to save us all from “global boiling” it is well known that 10 times as many people die from cold as from heat.
Anybody betting what Ed might say? Perhaps along the lines of ‘you don’t need it any more because it’s warmer’, banking on the idea that it might be like last winter. Of course, the likelihood is that it will be quite different, and rather colder next time, notwithstanding the climate scaremongers.
He might also say they don’t need it anymore because wind is cheaper. Which is a bare faced lie. Miliband is the Walter Mitty of energy.
Walter Mittyband LOL
Last winter was ‘warm’?
Don’t forget the “assisted” dying legislation they are about to bring in as well just to “help” you on your way.
Pensioners tend to be small c conservative.
Public sector tend to be lefties.
Clearly, Labour are following the Democrat playbook, the first of many smash and grabs to empower their mates.
And trimming life expectancy is good for the Treasury, given the way the state pension scheme is funded, along with inheritance tax etc.
…and increasing retirement age will reduce uptake of state pensions. Some people worked to death.
If Labour can’t afford to keep pensioners warm, how can they afford to keep illegal migrants housed in relative luxury, fed and watered, not to mention provided with TVs, smart phones and a promise that they may be allowed to remain ?
Good point. I meant to put something similar in my tirade above but pressed ‘post’ too soon.
What does Vernon Coleman say- once you get over 50 the Government couldn’t care less about you.I think i would use stronger words myself.
Yup “don’t kill granny” was just emotional blackmail to push an agenda.
I guess the Chancellor is going to get a moniker soon. We could try “Rachel Reeves prince of thieves” especially if she goes for pensioners’ promised tax-free lump sums!
Rachel Reeves princess of thieves …. not only correct but sounds IMHO even nicer.
I thought that perhaps ‘prince’ was nod to labour’s love for diversity, inclusion and equality!
She’s going to add more cuts and taxes and rewarding her favoured pals, so let’s not downgrade her: Queen of Thieves.
Reeves the Granny reaper
The grim reever?
As this makes her sound rather formidable, another suggestion would be The dim reever.
At a loose end, I ran “Rachel Reeves” through my patent Acme Anagram Generator and, for want of a letter or two, came up with “Evil Arse Ache”. Fate is uncanny sometimes.
Another announcement:
Labour scraps dozens of planned railway lines in blow for small town Britain (telegraph.co.uk)
This is even worse than it looks because, thanks to Grant Shaps, councils have been spending tens of millions on things like cycle lanes and other “active travel” measures. My own, poverty-stricken, council has a budget of about £40,000,000! for this total waste of resources. It knows it’s a waste but the money’s there, so they’ll spend it. I wonder if Ms Reeves is going to look at this area of cost before it’s too late.
Well, fifteen minute cities means we won’t be going anywhere so these local lines are not needed.
How to take our houses.
Grind the poorest pensioners in to death trap poverty. Pensions might be frozen, fuel bills become unaffordable, cost of living through the roof and along comes our lovely government offering to buy pensioners homes. Obviously the government won’t be able to pay full market value because they haven’t the money but desperate pensioners see no other route and sign up. Before they know it they have lost their homes and are moved in to 21st century
retirement homesworkhouses.Make no mistake this government is coming for our homes.
As a slight aside I wonder how many people believe that this government is working to a plan that has been “gifted” to them?
For our homes, for our cars, for our heating, for our food, for our holidays, for our ability to drive across the city, etc etc. ——–Sustainable Development, that they are all signed up to demands our living standards are reduced because the lifestyles of the affluent west are “too high”. ——-Our own governments don’t work for us and have not done for some time. They take their instructions from the Davos set that are running the world in conjunction with Corporations and they impose their will on us by “Net Zero” and ESG”
Possibly going against the flow here, and no fan of labour, however the fuel allowance, if we need to have one (and we shouldn’t be it not for net zero subsidies), should surely have been means tested from the start? I know plenty of pensioners who don’t need it at all and still got it – I guess tories saw it as a way of giving something back, no matter how small.
if we truly are in financial dire straits, and all indicators seem to show we are, then the means testing should be tightened up to a much, much smaller number of people – not just some ‘you get other benefits so you can have this’.
back to the original concept of social security etc – to keep you off the breadline for a period – a safety net. Instead we have a benefits culture / system that props up peoples income to make up for their low pay, mostly due to immigrant workers constantly driving down wages… all this introduced by the ‘workers party’…
The costs of means testing have not been calculated including how many more civil servants would have to be employed to carry out the calculations and check for fraud. It’s simpler to give everyone a small one-off allowance.
In theory the logic works, question is where is the tipping point where it makes sense. In the case of this benefit, it can’t be too onerous to link it to other means tested benefits, even for DSS or whatever they are called this week
“If we are in financial dire straights” ?????? ——–But Labour just gave a 22% increase to Doctors after only 3 weeks in office. Should they not maybe have negotiated for less if we are in such dire straights?. We are in “dire straights” but Miliband is about to send another 12 billion to the third world to bribe them into not using fossil fuels, We are in “dire straights” but can afford to stick economic illegal migrants in hotels. —–If we are in “dire straights” then those dire straights are very selective. There is no shortage of money for Liberal progressive goals.
I knows frustrating as hell isn’t it! I’d respect them more if they just came out and said ‘we don’t like you lot, so you are being hit’
Agreed. ( But it’s ’dire straits’, not ‘straights’!)
Yes it is “straits” and I even double checked with my wife before passing comment. —–I am usually meticulous with spelling as there is nothing more amatewrisch than bad spelling —-ha .
I get your point but the cut off for applying for Pension Credit is really low, and any savings have to be declared. Many old people have income just above the threshold and will miss out on everything going…these are the poorest in our society and I’m so angry for them. I hope the Liebour voters are happy with things so far!
I wonder when our cultural pivoted to this reliance on government propping up – don’t remember it as a kid in 70s/80’s… except child benefit
What do we need a winter fuel allowance for! In winter, when the wind isn’t blowing, the sun isn’t shining, there will be blackouts, and so no electric to buy!
Except we are paying a £13 per week standing charge(including VAT) on electricity & gas, whether you are using it or not. You are paying the same standing charge if you live in a studio flat or a 10 bed mansion.
Indeed – thanks for highlighting the standing charge issue which is not often mentioned. This has significantly increased bills and has directly increased the profit margin of the energy suppliers. And there was me thinking that Ofgem exists to regulate the industry and to safeguard consumer interests!
If we were to believe the standard charge was for the infra you need for your situation, then both your examples would require the same pipe, meter etc. the volume used makes no difference. I’m sure in reality it’s used to prop up unreliables etc
This is to reward the public sector workers and penalise boomers. Boomers are the cause of all problems particularly global boiling and unaffordable housing through their unfettered consumerism.
Toby.Please can you raise a month by month article on everything the present Government is doing to destroy our nation. Nut Zero, Tax, Education, Immigration, European Union and much much more. Yes, I know the last Government were crap, but this present lot are taking it to a whole new level. They are not Centrists but far left, who along with the Libtards, Greens and the Scottish party despise our country, history and culture. Whenever you see Starmer he invariably has a Union flag behind him. Do not be fooled. This is to try and con certain elements of the population to vote Liebour. Sadly it worked. Some are saying Reform will get in in 5 years time. By the time that happens the U.K. will be beyond repair.