Lack of winter fuel payment ‘might be unpopular’ as snow falls, Streeting admits Wes Streeting has acknowledged withdrawing winter fuel payments from pensioners “might be unpopular” following health service advice to keep home heated during this weekend’s cold snap,.
Asked whether his advice was “tactful”, Mr Streeting said: “It is part of the advice that the NHS is giving to people during this cold snap to make sure that people are doing whatever they can to keep warm, to make sure, as we’ve been doing in the run-up to this winter, that people get vaccinated and so on.
“But just coming back to this issue of winter fuel allowance, the Chancellor (Rachel Reeves) did protect winter fuel allowance for the poorest pensioners.
The Government last year axed universal payments of up to £300 to help with pensioners’ heating bills, with the uplift now only available to claimants of certain benefits such as pension credit.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that getting rid of the winter fuel allowance for others has been a popular decision.”.
