Rachel Reeves under pressure to rethink winter fuel payment policy - The Yorkshire Post says
It is a testament to the outrage felt over the sudden limitations imposed on the winter fuel allowance that The Yorkshire Post today publishes a special report on the subject.
Now there is even greater pressure on the Government to rethink the change of policy – in which pensioners’ payments will be means-tested – after the rise of the energy price cap yesterday.
Appearing to deprive millions of elderly people of funds to keep them warm through winter is not a good look for anyone, least of all a Labour administration which in the days following its re-election after 14 years described itself as a "government of service”.
To many, this policy appears to be a major miscalculation so soon into the new government.
Or, perhaps anticipating the rancour it would provoke, ministers have got it out of the way at the earliest stage.
One letter writer says that he voted for the Labour Party for the first time in 49 years but now feels let down, while another describes the policy as "a blatant rip-off and a massive kick in the teeth to the elderly and infirm”.
There are plenty who believe this to be a fair move. But the critics, no doubt about it, are numerous and not limited to letter writers. The national charity Age UK, for example, has warned that as many as two million pensioners will be in "serious trouble", straightforwardly branding it a "wrong policy choice” and “the last thing either they or the NHS needs".
Finance expert Martin Lewis has also called the eligibility criteria “far too narrow”, saying a more workable solution would be based on council tax bands – an idea he intends to put to Chancellor Rachel Reeves.
Many will also despair at it coinciding with the rail union pay deal, allowing a divisive winners-and-losers narrative to take hold. Whether Ms Reeves changes her position remains to be seen but memories of her intentions, regardless, will last.