The government limited cut winter fuel payments earlier this year
Charity Age UK has warned that old people are “worried and anxious about turning on their heating” as temperatures plummet below freezing across the country.
The UK is in the midst of a cold snap that saw temperatures drop well below freezing on Thursday night. The village of Benson in Oxfordshire recorded the lowest temperature overnight, with the mercury dropping to -7.9C.
The cold temperatures are set to continue into the weekend, with yellow weather warnings for snow and ice in place for most of England, Wales and Scotland between Saturday and Monday.
Meanwhile, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has issued an amber cold weather health alert for the whole of England, warning of a risk of a rise in deaths. This alert is in place until Wednesday, January 8.
The icy weather has prompted Age UK, the country’s leading charity for older people, to criticise the government for its decision earlier this year to limit winter fuel payments to only the poorest pensioners.
The charity’s director Caroline Abrahams said the policy would be put “into sharp relief” by the freezing weather.
She said Age UK had already been contacted by elderly people “worrying about what to do when this moment arrived.”
Meanwhile, Paul Farmer from Age UK told BBC Breakfast there are “around about two and a half million people who need winter fuel payments, but will not be receiving it.”
He continued: “The knock-on effect for those older people will be they are worried and anxious about turning their heating on at this precise moment. This is the moment where the decision that was made in July really comes home to effect older people.”
Whilst Farmer said the charity “can’t say for sure the impact that that will have on older people overall,”. he did they “have to draw a natural conclusion that when the weather gets cold that this is the moment when older people need that winter fuel payment the most.”
He concluded: “So we are concerned about the overall health risk to older people at this particular time.”
Health Secretary Wes Streeting told BBC Breakfast “it is definitely a weekend to turn the heating on.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer had previously said many pensioners did not need the allowance because they are “relatively wealthy.” The cut to the winter fuel payments aims to save £1.5bn a year.
