Terrified OAPs bombarding charities with calls over Labour’s decision to axe winter fuel payments

WORRIED pensioners bombarded charities with calls after the decision to cut winter fuel payments.

Age UK has been “overwhelmed” since Chancellor Rachel Reeves said the benefits would be axed.

She is under fire after stating up to 10million people would lose the benefit — which pays up to £300 — to plug a public finances “black hole”.

It came just before train drivers got inflation-busting pay rises.
Age UK boss Paul Farmer said he was “extremely concerned” for older people who will lose the funds this winter.

He told of one caller, 73, who was “in a terrible state” at the news. He said: “He’d broken down in tears several times.”

Mr Farmer told BBC Radio 4 that calls to Age UK’s national advice service were up 40 per cent and use of its online benefits calculator up 200 per cent.

He said energy regulator Ofgem’s announcement that bills will rise by 10 per cent this winter was a “further terrible blow” to older people struggling.

Former PM Rishi Sunak has signed an early day motion urging Reeves to drop the decision to axe winter fuel payments.

Ex-shadow minister Rachael Maskell said she was “deeply concerned” about the move.

Former Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman, now a Labour peer, suggested “a different cut-off point” for payments.

Only those on Pension Credit, or other means-tested benefits, will qualify for help this year.