Rachel Reeves discusses axeing of winter fuel payments
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A pensioner has told how Rachel Reeves will “kill us all off” with the scrapping of the winter fuel payments for those not on means-tested benefits.
Former mechanic John, 72, fears pensioners will die or end up in hospital next winter without the extra support needed to turn the heating on.
He said: “If I spoke to Rachel Reeves I’d say ‘you’re hitting the wrong people’. We can't survive how we are now. To hit us even harder, she’s just going to kill us all off.
“If we have a bad winter, there’s going to be a lot of pensioners in hospital with pneumonia or die from hypothermia. It’s just got ridiculous now. With the price of food and everything else.”
“We’ve cut back on food. We’ve cut back on everything we can cut back on.”
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John lives with his wife of 33 years Wenefreda, 56, in a one-bedroom bungalow in Gloucestershire.
Wenefreda works as a part-time cleaner while John only receives a state pension.
He formally received Pension Credit but after a recalculation by HMRC, they determined he had been overpaid and he was required to pay it back, exacerbating their financial worries.
"We’re just about keeping our heads above water right now, just about. However, the loss of the winter fuel payment could be the straw that breaks the camel's back. I don’t know where we’ll get the money from," John said.
He added: "We’re now paying Octopus ￡112 per month, but we only put the heating on when we absolutely have to.
During the winter I keep it set to 5C just to stop the pipes freezing. I only turn it up to 21C if we have visitors, but we live in a one-bed bungalow, so the cost already seems like too much for us."
Pensioner John and his wife Wenefreda (Image: Daily Express)
The couple highlights the continuing rise of food bills and inflation, adding to their concerns.
John, who referred to his two rescue dogs as being like “hot water bottles”, said: "It’s an extremely worrying time, especially when the temperature drops.
“We don’t have any options. I honestly don’t know what we are going to do. I think it’s going to get to the stage where we don’t put the heating on at all, which I think could cause me some health problems."
“We don’t have any treats anymore, and certainly no holidays or anything like that. At the supermarket, we buy just the basics, just the essentials.”