The decision by Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Government to remove the Winter Fuel Allowance for all pensioners who do not claim Pension Credit is a betrayal of the older generation. In Stoke-on-Trent alone, approximately 47,500 pensioners will lose this vital benefit.
These aren’t millionaire retirees living in luxury—they’re everyday pensioners who shop at Longton and Tunstall Markets, catch the bus up to Hanley on a Friday, and help remind their neighbours when it’s bin day.
Without the WFA, these pensioners will face soaring energy bills this winter. The WFA lifeline survived 14 years of Conservative-led government, despite attempts by Treasury mandarins to cut it.
Most Conservatives understood the WFA was crucial in helping pensioners stay warm during the coldest months—indirectly saving the NHS’s precious resources by preventing many cold-related illnesses, trips to A&E and hospital admissions. It took Labour’s new government just 68 days to axe the benefit - unsupported by any manifesto.
Their party’s own internal assessment in 2017 concluded that the WFA saved 10,000 lives a year. Our 3 newly-elected Labour MPs in Stoke-on-Trent, who were voted in on promises of ‘real change’, willingly voted to axe the WFA.
For pensioners in Stoke-on-Trent, this isn’t about jetting off to sunny climates or retreating to a Spanish villa - like the MP for Stoke-on-Trent North. It’s about making ends meet during the coming winter. When a photo recently surfaced of the MP for Stoke-on-Trent Central posing with a pledge card promising to protect the Winter Fuel Allowance, pensioners were left feeling like they needed their eyes checked.
The hypocrisy from our local Labour MPs is staggering, but that is a mere symptom of the Party’s deep national rot. At the top, we have a Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and Chancellor who each earn more in a year than the average Stokie could save in a decade. And yet, we’ve seen reports of Cabinet members harvesting all manner of luxury gifts, accommodation, holidays, corporate boxes at sports matches and gigs, designer clothes and glasses from rich donors.
Labour loves to lecture and criticise others for the most minor infraction. Yet they are seemingly blind to their own hypocrisy. Labour are acting as though every pensioner is one of their tycoon donors. The means-testing that determines eligibility for Pension Credit is brutal. Many pensioners with just the State Pension are pennies over the threshold, disqualifying them from receiving it—and therefore, the WFA. It’s a harsh line in the sand. There are much better ways to end the universalism of the benefit. Means-testing is inefficient but not inherently wrong. It could have been refined to exclude the genuinely wealthy, while continuing to support those who need it most.
Labour’s decision smacks of political calculation—an attack on a demographic they no longer see as a natural voter base. Pensioners had one of the highest proportions of Leave voters in the country. This is not about balancing the books—it’s about hurting vulnerable people who Labour wants to punish. These pensioners have families, friends, and communities.
The cost of this cruel policy will ultimately fall on them as they step in to help their elderly loved ones. How many of us will turn down a grandparent’s or elderly neighbour’s plea for help with heating bills? How many more pensioners will fall ill due to cold homes? How much will that end up costing the NHS and the taxpayer in the long term?
We don’t know because in Labour’s haste there has apparently been no impact assessment - despite the rules requiring it. Our local Labour MPs had the chance to stand up for pensioners.
They could have claimed the moral high ground. Instead, they fell in line—perhaps too busy booking their next EasyJet flight or desperately trying to scrub old photos of campaign promises from the web.
