‘Heat or eat’: a retired member looks ahead to a tough winter

UNISON predicts that a ‘significant number’ of its 167,000 retired members are going to struggle as a result of the government changes to the winter fuel allowance

Photograph of a senior couple, sitting in front of a radiator, the woman holding gas bill
                                                                                                                       Image: Bigstock/Solarisys

“Heat or eat” is a phrase we’ve heard many times before. But those terrible words are going to become a mantra for the millions of pensioners who have just lost the winter fuel allowance.

And it’s a phrase that 75-year-old Graham Wilkins uses a few times, as he discusses his “absolute shock” at chancellor Rachel Reeves’s decision to restrict the allowance to only those pensioners receiving pension credit, drawing a line that will exclude an estimated 10 million people.

“I know how much pensioners – and obviously not just UNISON members – rely on that money, to actually keep their heating on during the winter,” he says. “It makes a hell of a difference.”

‘I can tell you when it’s going to rain, because my ankles swell up’

Passport style portrait of Graham Wilkins

Graham (pictured above) is the retired members officer for UNISON’s Northumberland County local government branch, and the Northern region rep on the union’s national retired members’ committee.

A field officer for the council’s countryside service, he retired due to ill health when he was 53, and until now has always received the allowance. And it’s been incredibly useful, not least because, like many in the old mining community in which he lives, his rented flat is old and cold.

Long-standing injuries also make him a little more vulnerable to the weather. As well as a problematic hip replacement, which has come out twice in the past 12 months, he has two plates in his ankle, the result of a serious injury at work. “With stainless steel plates in the ankle, a stainless steel hip, you can actually feel the cold more sometimes,” he says, adding with a chuckle: “I can tell you when it’s gonna rain, because my ankles start to swell up.”

He’s always been “very careful” about his heating bills, reading his meters every month, keeping his usage within manageable limits. The £300 he has received in the winter fuel allowance has simply matched the increases in energy charges, keeping him from going too far into the red. “That’s all it is, paying off the arrears,” he says. “And yes, it means I could have the heating on all day during Christmas, to keep the house nice and warm.”

No safety net

The absence of that safety net is daunting. “I am really worried. My daughter and my son said: ‘Well, if you’re stuck dad, come to us and we’ll put some money into your bank account, we’re not going to see you cold. Don’t sit there with two jumpers and a coat.’ But you don’t expect to keep on going back to your children to help you out, especially when you’ve worked hard, paid your dues.

“So, it’s the choice between going into debt or doing without the heating and just wearing as many clothes as you can. You know, heat or eat. That’s what it is. At the end of each month, I literally have no more than about £20 pounds in my account before my pensions come in. You haven’t got the money for an extra 50, 60 quid for heating.”

Though retired, Graham remains active, not only with UNISON, but by chairing school appeals (when children can’t get a place in over-subscribed schools) and independent review panels for nine local authorities in the north east. Ironically, that adds to his heating issues. Sometimes the appeals are held in the civic centre, but quite often he’s working from his makeshift office at home.

“My office doesn’t have a radiator. I have an electric fan heater, which I put on for about 10 minutes to warm up the place. If I sit there all day, I’ll put a fleece on, just to keep warm.” His work is not paid, and he doesn’t receive renumeration from the council for having his heating on.

Ironically, for a septuagenarian retiree, the contingency plans for keeping warm include extra work. Graham is now looking forward to a big appeal this winter in North Tyneside, where he will be working in the council headquarters, “in a nice warm meeting room, with as many lattes as they can provide me and a meal – so my heating doesn’t need to go on until I get home.”

There are going to be a lot of people who may suffer this winter and end up in hospital

Graham is keen to find out how many other retired members in his branch will be affected, should the chancellor refuse to back down. Typically, for a UNISON member, he’s concerned not just for fellow members, but all those around him.

“Where I live, most of the streets are pensioners. I’ve got at least five people living near me who have been in receipt of the winter fuel allowance. I have a lady just up the road, she must be 90-plus. Her gas is pretty much on all the time at the moment, so her bill must be very, very expensive. If she’s just over the top [of the pension credit threshold], she’s not going to get this money.”

He has a message for the chancellor: “Please, really, really think. There are going to be a lot of people who may suffer this winter and end up in hospital. You say you’re going to save £1.5 billion by not paying the allowance, but that’s going to cost you much more in the long run.”

UNISON has also sent a strong message to the government ahead of the budget on 30 October, calling for the immediate reinstatement of the allowance.

This follows an emergency debate at the union’s retired members’ conference earlier this month, where delegates voiced deep concern that restricting eligibility to those receiving pension credit means that that too many pensioners will fall between the cracks.

And having budgeted for the allowance, they’ve had the rug pulled from under them just as winter approaches.

As well as calling on the chancellor to change her mind, the union is encouraging its retired members to check whether they are entitled to pension credits – and receive the benefits they are entitled to – by using the benefits calculator provided by the union’s welfare charity, There for You.

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