Winter Fuel Allowance (WFA)
I have campaigned and voted against the cuts to the Winter Fuel Allowance (WFA), but we were outvoted by Labour MPs who supported the move. I’m very concerned about the impact this will have, especially as this is echoed by many people, including pensioners worried about how they will manage this winter.
The previous Conservative government crashed our economy, left our public services in a mess and blew a hole in the public finances. They presided over a spiralling cost-of-living crisis, leaving millions of families and pensioners worried about how to make ends meet – especially with energy bills set to rise again this winter.
The new PM, Mr Starmer, correctly suggested that “those with the broadest shoulders should bear the greatest burden”. Against that, the decision on WFA is all the more difficult to justify. If they just cut it from those in the highest income tax band, it would make sense. Stripping support from many of the poorest pensioners, just when energy bills are set to rise again this winter, is the wrong thing to do.
The Chancellor’s changes to Winter Fuel Payments will increase anxieties amongst millions of poor pensioners. A rethink is urgently needed. That is why the Liberal Democrats tabled a motion in the House of Commons to reject these plans. I voted against the removal of the Winter Fuel Payments.
As the Government tries to clear up the Conservatives’ mess, it must ensure that this does not come at the expense of pensioners and families who are struggling with the cost of living this winter. They must also take steps to ensure that all those eligible for pension credit claim both the benefit itself and the Winter Fuel Payments.
Liberal Democrats are calling on the government to take emergency action to end fuel poverty by:
- Launching an emergency Home Energy Upgrade programme, with free insulation and heat pumps for low-income households;
- Providing incentives for installing heat pumps that cover the real costs;
- Offering additional help to the thousands of pensioners who are eligible for Pension Credit, but who have not applied;
- Introducing a social tariff for the most vulnerable to provide targeted energy discounts for vulnerable households;
- Helping people with the cost of living by implementing a proper one-off windfall tax on the super-profits of oil and gas producers and traders;
- Decoupling electricity prices from the wholesale gas price, and
- Eliminating unfair regional differences in domestic energy bills.
We have also called on the government to tackle the wider cost-of-living crisis, including by investing an extra £1bn a year in our farmers to bring down food prices, increasing the Carer’s Allowance and expanding it to more carers, and removing the two-child limit and the benefit cap.
Pensioners are one of the most vulnerable groups in society, with more than two million currently in poverty. They have had a tremendously difficult time during the cost-of-living crisis, dealing with record energy bills and eye-watering shopping bills.
That’s why Liberal Democrats are proud to have introduced the triple lock in Government. In spite of claims to the contrary, this was a Liberal Democrat (not Conservative) manifesto policy, and has lifted countless thousands of vulnerable pensioners out of poverty, and we are strongly committed to ensuring it remains in place in the future. Pensioners deserve to have this support and the security of knowing that the triple lock will be there in the long term, and so the value of the pension does not erode, as it did when Mrs Thatcher broke the link with earnings in the 80s.
Together with my Liberal Democrat colleagues in Parliament, I will continue to press the government to reverse its cuts to the Winter Fuel Allowance and take action to tackle the cost-of-living crisis, end fuel poverty and support pensioners.