The Importance of Winter Fuel Payments to Pensioners
On Monday 29th July 2024, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves announced that Winter fuel payments will be scrapped – if people don’t fit the parameters. Many people have been left unsure about what this means.
What are Winter Fuel Payments?
Currently, all pensioners born on or before 24th September 1957 receive between £100 and £300 yearly. These ‘Winter fuel payments’ are made so that pensioners can afford their heating bills and electricity bills, when the cost of living is as high as it is. These payments have varying impacts on people’s living circumstances, with those living slightly above the poverty line depending on the money more than the pensioners who are more affluent.
What has Rachel Reeves announced Will Happen?
The Chancellor has announced Winter fuel payments will be almost entirely scrapped to make up for the £20 Billion lost by the previous government, stating that all pensioners except those in receipt of pension credit (and other benefits) will no longer receive them. This means that out of the current 11.4 million pensioners who currently for winter fuel allowance, roughly 1.5 million will still get the yearly payments.
What Makes This Important?
As a result, Rachel’s announcement has brought discomfort among the population, especially older people, because of the potential knock-on effects. One such potential effect emphasises the threat of the upcoming Winter because pensioners were already due to get less, considering that they won’t have the additional £300 top-up, much like in Winter 2022. When combined with a possible 10% energy price cap rise, this will likely mean energy bills could reach levels double what they were before the cost-of-living-crisis and consequentially, many pensioners will no longer be able to afford heating in the cold months.
How can you reduce heating costs?
As of 2nd August 2024, the cost to run a 2KW convection heater is £0.68 per hour. On the other hand, far infrared heaters will only need 0.7KW to heat this space, at £0.24 per hour. As a result, far infrared heating is not only cheaper to run long-term but also drastically reduces electricity bills (by being cheaper to run standard convection heating) and heating bills (by running on electricity.) On top of this, far infrared heaters can be used to consistently heat specific areas in a room, meaning no power is wasted on dead space that is unlikely to be used.
Conclusion
While the Chancellor tries to create ways to cut government spending to recover from the previous government, it creates a country-wide panic as pensioners are likely to struggle over the winter. Therefore, we suggest that people decrease their energy usage to reach the same levels of comfort, using far infrared heaters.
