One-day warning as state pensioners face being £459 worse off from tomorrow

Isabelle Bates
·2-min read
Serious caucasian old elderly senior couple grandparents family counting funds on calculator, doing paperwork, savings, paying domestic bills, mortgage loan, pension at home using laptop.
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Thousands of people are set to be around £459 worse off from tomorrow (Tuesday, October 1). It comes following changes to the Winter Fuel Payment and Winter Fuel Allowance.

This is worth £300 but new rules mean that the cash will only go to people who were born before September 23, 1958 and receive certain benefits including: Pension Credit, Income Support, Income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), Income-based Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA), Child Tax Credit, Working Tax Credit and Universal Credit.

Sharon Graham, the general secretary of Unite, has slammed Sir Keir Starmer for removing the allowance while “leaving the super-rich untouched”. At the Labour Party Conference, speaking to loud applause, she told delegates: “Our public services and British industry need investment now.

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“It’s no good having sympathy for workers at Grangemouth losing their jobs: they don’t need pity, they need Labour to step up to the plate and not allow a billionaire, who buys a football club as a hobby, to throw these workers on the scrapheap.”

She added: “We are the sixth richest economy in the world; we have the money. Britain needs investment, not austerity mark II. We won’t get any gold badge for shaving peanuts off our debt. It’s the wrong decision, and it needs to be reversed.”

Those missing out on the cash will also have to deal with a £149 rise in energy bills thanks to the Ofgem price cap. They announced that the average home energy bill will increase from £1,568 to £1,717 on October 1 in a blow to homeowners.

Ofgem regulator sets the price limit for each unit of energy used based on several factors including the amount energy providers pay for gas and electricity before supplying it to households.

The limit changes every January, April, July and October. The prices were reduced previously but are set to go back up adding to the ongoing cost of living crisis.

Those on standard variable tariffs paying by direct debit will pay on average 24.5p per kilowatt hour (kWh) for electricity and a daily standing charge of 60.99p, and 6.24p for gas with a standing charge of 31.66.

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