Winter Fuel Payment: 59% of Britons oppose cutting the pensioner benefit with families concerned at bill hikes

Payments of up to £300 had been made available to everyone above state pension age, to help with the energy crisis since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

However, from this winter pensioners will only receive a payment if they are receiving pension credit, the Chancellor announced as she sought to plug a £22 billion “black hole” in public finances.

This will cut the number of pensioners receiving payment from 11.4 million to 2.3 million.

The Yorkshire Post has been inundated with letters from elderly people who say they feel betrayed by the new government.

A new poll of more than 2,100 people by YouGov, for environmental think tank the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), supports this. Two thirds of the respondents were aware of the move to remove winter fuel allowance payments from most pensioners through means testing, and 59 per cent opposed it, with only 28 per cent in favour.

However, Labour’s energy policies were popular in the survey.

Nearly two thirds of people were aware of the setting up of Great British Energy, a publicly owned energy company, and 68 per cent supported the move, while half of those quizzed were aware of the policy to end the ban on onshore wind, with 60 per cent backing it.

Alasdair Johnstone, of the ECIU, said the government’s “announcement blitz has been noticed and crucially ... appears to be popular”.

He added: “But with the gas crisis ongoing, bills still £400 higher than they were before the crisis and set to rise again ahead of winter, restrictions on winter fuel payments are unsurprisingly much less popular.”

Another survey, from Citizens Advice, found serious concern around the rise in fuel bills, with the price cap expected to increase on October 1. Up to a quarter of the UK population said they could be forced to turn off their heating and hot water this winter, which rose to 31 per cent for households with children.

The charity, which is still supporting record numbers of people with energy debt despite lower costs in the summer months, said households “will continue to face impossible choices and drastic cutbacks to be able to heat their homes” without urgent Government intervention.

It comes as the Department for Work and Pensions yesterday launched a campaign urging pensioners to check their eligibility for pension credit to get the Winter Fuel Payment.

While around 1.4 million pensioners are already receiving the benefit, the DWP believes there are an estimated 880,000 households eligible for the support who are yet to claim.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves said: "Our commitment to supporting pensioners remains, which is why we are maintaining the triple lock.

“We want pensioners to get the support they are entitled to. That’s why I urge all pensioners to check whether they are eligible for pension credit.”