Chancellor Racel Reeves has been widely criticised over her winter fuel changes (Image: Getty)
More than a million pensioners who were considered to be living in “absolute poverty” may no longer qualify for Winter Fuel Payments under Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s planned changes to the allowance, it has emerged.
In the financial year 2022/23 there were 1.4 million pensioners considered to be living in “absolute poverty” after their housing costs had been paid.
Absolute poverty measures the number and proportion of individuals who have household incomes 60 percent below the median average in 2010/11, adjusted for inflation.
It is used to look at how changes in income for the lowest-income households compare to changes in the .
Of the 1.4 million in that year, 1.2 million were not in receipt of Pension Credit, which means they would not qualify for under the new changes.
It does not necessarily follow that they would not qualify for Pension Credit and may mean that they never applied for it.
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The government is now urging any affected pensioners to make sure they find out of they qualify for and therefore may be able to get back the winter fuel allowance.
Such complications are among the arguments from critics of why they should not scrap the allowance.
The figures were released by new Labour MP for Wycombe who is a Parliamentary Secretary in the Treasury under Ms Reeves.
It was in response to a written Parliamentary question from Labour MP for Lowestoft Jess Asato, who asked Ms Reeves: “What recent estimate she has made of the number of pensioners not in receipt of Pension Credit living in (a) relative and (b) absolute poverty; and what estimate she has made of the number of additional pensioners who will be living in (i) relative and (ii) absolute poverty as a result of no longer receiving the .”
Ms Reynolds also revealed that for the same financial year 1.9 million pensioners were in “relative poverty” after housing costs and of those, 1.6 million were not in receipt of pension credit at the time.
People in relative poverty after housing costs have household incomes below 60 percent of the median average in that year, not adjusted for inflation.
The government is also urging these to see if they can get pension credits to claw back the fuel allowance.
Ms Reynolds added in her written response to the question: “Recognising the wide-ranging causes of pensioner poverty, we will explore how we can use all the available levers we have across government, external partners and local authorities.
“This includes boosting the uptake of Pension Credit to ensure that the poorest pensioners get the support they need.
“We know there are low-income pensioners who aren’t claiming Pension Credit, and we urge those people to apply.
“This will passport them to receive alongside a range of other benefits – depending on circumstances, these could be worth hundreds of pounds that could really help them.”