Hertfordshire County Council calls for winter fuel payment to be re-instated

Until now the ‘winter fuel payment’ – worth between £200 and £300 a year – has been available to all pensioners to help with energy bills.

But the government is now set to restrict the payment to those who are on low incomes and who receive particular benefits.

On Tuesday (October 15) a meeting of the county council backed a motion highlighting concerns about the move.

It said the Department for Work and Pensions was struggling to cope with the complex claims, “causing more anxiety amongst the most vulnerable”.

And it suggested the change could impact on the health of older people.

If only a small number of pensioners “decide to eat and not to heat”, said the motion, then more vulnerable older people will need social care or end up in hospital.

And in that case, it suggested, “there will be no saving to the country at all”.

Proposing the motion executive member for adult care, health and wellbeing Cllr Tony Kingsbury said it was a policy that would have “devastating consequences for some of the most vulnerable of our community”.

For many elderly people, he said, the payment was the difference between living in warmth and safety or enduring “cold and uncomfortable and sometimes dangerous conditions.

And for some, he said, the removal of the winter fuel payments could mean the ‘impossible choice’ between heating and eating – which for the elderly and vulnerable, he said, could be a matter of life and death.

While acknowledging that some pensioners may not need this support, he pointed to those living just above the £11,300 threshold.

And he highlighted the link between cold homes and the higher risk of illnesses such as pneumonia heart disease and stroke.

He pointed to an impact assessment completed in 2007 that he said had suggested that removing the payment could cause 4000 additional winter deaths.

And he said that if vulnerable people could not afford to heat their homes they would be more likely to end up in hospital with cold related illnesses – or to need the support of th council’s adult care services.

“This will place additional pressure on already over stretched healthcare service as well as this council’s adult care services at a time of the year when resources are most strained,” he said.

“The cost of hospitalisations, long-term treatments and home care could far outweigh the cost of maintaining the winter fuel payment.

“This decision is not only short sighted from a moral standpoint put also perhaps from a fiscal one.

“Removal of this support with little notice will deepen inequality and leave those already struggling with the cost of living to shoulder the se greater burdens.”

And urging all councillors to back the motion, he said: “We must send a strong message to the government that this decision is unacceptable.

“We cannot allow our elderly and vulnerable residents to be left out in the cold.”

The motion was backed by Liberal Democrat councillors, but Labour councillors abstained from the vote.

Speaking in the debate leader of the Labour group Cllr Nigel Bell referred to the “black hole of £22bn in our country’s finances”.

And he suggested there had been a “lack of honesty” from previous ministers about the economic legacy they had left their successors.

But he pointed to ongoing work pushing for additional mitigation measures – and admitted he would have preferred the decision on winter fuel payments had not been made.

“Clearly some very difficult decisions are having to be made across the economy – and on the winter fuel change I would much prefer these hadn’t been made,” he said.

“And we are pushing – and I know MPs and others are pushing – for more mitigating measures to be brought forward to help those who may miss out . And there is lots of work I know going on.”

Leader of the council’s Liberal Democrat group Steve Jarvis also acknowledged the “significant problem” with public finances, and said he did not believe what the government was proposing to do was acceptable.

He said there was an argument that there are many pensioners that don’t need the winter fuel allowance.

But he said the government had gone to the extreme where only the very poorest pensioners will receive the payment.

“I think the government have done the wrong thing here,” he said.

“I think they may have done something different, more slowly and in a considered way that we might have been able to support.

“But what they have done in a hurry is not the right thing to do.”

He also said it was important to encourage those who are eligible to claim Pension Credit.

And he said there were some “interesting figures” that suggested that if they all did the amount the government would save through this process “wouldn’t be anywhere near what they are setting out to save”.

As well as calling for the winter fuel payment to be reinstated, the motion called for a “coherent plan” for the wider challenge of caring for an ageing population.

It also called for a ‘long-term funding future’ for the Household Support Fund and for the council to promote Pension Credit help.