Rachel Reeves

PENSIONERS are set to lose out on hundreds of pounds in winter fuel support after Chancellor Rachel Reeves axed the payments on Monday ­– leaving help only available to the very poorest.

The announcement was part of a range of saving measures that Ms Reeves introduced to plug a £22 billion ‘black hole’ in the government’s finances, which she blamed on the previous Conservative government. The move came amid arguments about whether Labour knew before the election about the full state of the country’s finances and that it would be making cuts.

“It’s an absolute disaster for pensioners who are not on benefits but are struggling,” said Islington pensioner Annette Thomas, 93. “There are thousands of pensioners who don’t claim any other benefits but are really on the breadline.

“It’s a really dishonest act on the part of the new Labour government, who were supposed to undo the damage that the Tories have done.

“I don’t see any chance of the cost of living reducing in the near future. To do anything other than increase pensions is absolutely abhorrent.”

Ms Reeves’ proposed policy will strip 10 million pensioners of their winter fuel payments and, according to the charity Age UK, leave up to 2 million financially struggling older people poorer still.

Chief Executive Officer of Age UK Islington Sally Miller said the changes to winter fuel payments are going to cut into the already severely stretched incomes of many older people in the borough.

“We know of older people who are still working and going to foodbanks,” Ms Miller said.

“Others who are seriously unwell have a need to keep the thermostat turned up to protect their health.

“These people and many other older residents are going to be particularly badly impacted.

“We are equipping ourselves to be ready to respond to a surge of enquiries from older residents wanting help to work out how they are going to make ends meet.”

Winter fuel payments were introduce in 1997 by the last Labour government, and aimed to address the annual 40,000 excess winter deaths among people living in fuel poverty.

Speaking in the House of Commons when she announced the cuts, Ms Reeves said that the former Chancellor Jeremy Hunt had “deliberately lied” to the country about public spending.

Mr Hunt responded: “She wants to blame the last Conservative government for tax rises and project cancellations she’s been planning all along.”

Ms Reeves also cancelled some road and rail schemes that the government had planned to do, and put plans to build 40 new hospitals under review.