Morgan Vine, head of policy at Independent Age, says the charity is particularly concerned about pensioners who will narrowly miss out on the payment.
“The chancellor’s announcement to end the winter fuel payment for those not receiving pension credit risks driving hundreds of thousands of older people into further financial hardship,” she says.
“That’s hundreds of thousands more older people having to skip meals and not use their heating, living with extreme anxiety about how they will make ends meet.”
The winter fuel allowance was previously available to all pensioners.
But the new Labour government has announced that from this winter, only those who receive pension credit or other means-tested benefits will be eligible.
To be in line for the the payment, pensioners in England and Wales need to have an income of less than £218.15 a week, or £332.95 as a joint weekly income. Their savings are also taken into account.
Disabled people, carers and those with housing costs could be eligible despite these factors, and it is estimated that pension credit is not received by more than a third of those who should get it.
The governments in Scotland and Northern Ireland have not yet decided whether to make the benefit means-tested.
Some pensioners have told the BBC they think they should no longer receive the benefit as they do not need it.
“We said we would be honest with the public and, given the dire state of the public finances we have inherited, this government must take difficult decisions to fix the foundations of the economy,” a government spokesperson said.
“In these circumstances it is right that winter fuel payments are targeted at those in most need, and we will work with local authorities to boost the uptake of pension credit, reaching the many pensioners who could still benefit from this year’s winter fuel payments.”
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