It remains perplexing that a newly elected Labour government should choose to cut the much-valued winter fuel payment to pensioners, not just taking it from well-off people but right down to a very low income level.
The fuel allowance is a ‘smart’ benefit because it helps with a spike in cost that people on a fixed income face at a specific time of year. There is ample evidence that this is indeed what it gets used for – in an area like East Hampshire many off-grid pensioner households will earmark it for a delivery of kerosene, for example.
There is a clear link between cold and health problems. So, offset against the cost of the winter fuel payment are savings to the NHS.
Compared to its highly-targeted benefit, the saving from cutting it isn’t even that great. (And if the government does – against historical precedent – manage significantly to increase the take-up of pension credit, that saving shrinks to somewhere between negligible and negative.)
This was a flagship policy of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, maintained ever since. Even in the large cutbacks that were needed in 2010-12, the winter fuel payment stayed.
So why, oh why, would the government do this now? It is hard to find a satisfactory explanation.
Could it be perhaps that they are cutting it not despite it being difficult and unpopular and unexpected but because it is difficult and unpopular and unexpected.
The government whips know that once their MPs have voted for something like this once, it is much easier to get them to do so in future.
And there are plenty of “difficult decisions” to come. Not because of a mythical black hole. But because being in government is full of difficult decisions.
For years, Labour MPs have been used to blaming the then government for all the ills of the world. There has been a sense that, in government, just by being Labour, all things would become better.
Of course we are in a phase of the incoming government seeking to paint the legacy of the outgoing government in as bleak terms as possible. This gives a bit of breathing space.
But soon there will be unavoidable realities. There are few easy choices, and some really knotty problems.
Take illegal immigration. Pre-election, Labour seemed to be saying that if only there was the will, and a few more officers for the National Crime Agency, it could be stopped. Now, Sir Keir is in discussion with Italy’s Giorgia Meloni about their combination of enforcement, punishment and deterrent – and processing asylum claims offshore. Ahem.
Labour MPs are experiencing the transition from opposition to government. This is what they have striven for for years. But for most of that time they have had the luxury of being able to blame the then government for everything, and able to take attractive-sounding positions without having to consider costs or deal with any trade-offs.
Across many policy areas, that is soon to become an unavailable option. By being told to vote to cut the winter fuel payment, Labour MPs are getting used to this reality early.
But choices are still choices, and there was nothing inevitable about the fate of the winter fuel payment. It is frankly appalling that the government have made the active choice to make this cut, affecting thousands of low-income East Hants pensioners.
