When the Government announced it would restrict the Winter Fuel Payment (WFP) to pensioners on Pension Credit in 2024, it did so without any published impact assessment. A benefit that once reached nearly every pensioner, worth up to £300 a year, was removed from around 10 million people on the basis of a targeting principle that looked clean in theory, but was flawed in practice.
The logic was familiar: direct support only to those “in need.” But that presumed the system for identifying need was working. In reality, 900,000 people eligible for Pension Credit don’t claim it, thanks to stigma, complexity, or simple confusion. Others live just above the Pension Credit threshold, still struggling with high energy costs. And many face extra heating needs due to disability or poor quality housing, factors that no blunt income test can capture.
By January 2025, the human cost of the policy had become clear. Over 9.1 million people aged 66 and over reported feeling cold in their own homes. A&E visits for over-65s jumped by 100,000 compared to the previous winter, despite milder weather.
Age UK led a campaign supported by over 650,000 petitioners, and Unite launched a judicial review, arguing the Government had failed to conduct a proper consultation or equality impact assessment. Meanwhile, Reform UK surged in the polls, promising to fully restore universal WFPs. When Nigel Farage entered the race, he made the benefit a central plank of his pitch to working-class voters.
Under pressure from campaigners, the public, and Reform’s electoral gains, the Government announced a partial U-turn in May. Chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed that eligibility would be widened before winter 2025, though full universality was ruled out. Ministers are now considering a model in which all pensioners receive the payment upfront, but higher earners repay it via the tax system.
It’s an improvement—but still a sticking plaster.
There’s still no evidence of a proper impact assessment. No sign the Government is seriously considering how to reach the 900,000 who miss out on Pension Credit. No indication they’ve factored in the added costs faced by disabled people, or those living in poorly insulated, damp homes who need to run the heating longer to stay warm and prevent illness.
And at PMQs this week Kemi Badenoch mocked Labour’s reversal: “Three weeks ago the policy was set in stone, two weeks ago the Prime Minister U-turned, today the Chancellor is rushing through her plans because she just realised when winter is.” But her criticism stopped short of addressing the deeper issues of structural exclusion and hardship. Keir Starmer, for his part, offered warm words about economic stability and reducing child poverty, but again, no detail.
Winter Fuel Payment has turned into a political football, with each party trying to claim the mantle of compassion without doing the hard policy work. The people most affected – low-income, carers and disabled pensioners – still fall through the cracks of a system that prizes theoretical neatness over real-world messiness.
If the Government wants to fix this properly, it needs more than a tax recovery model. It needs to ask: what does it really cost to stay warm in winter? And who is being quietly left out?
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