UK govt winter fuel decision challenged

Married senior citizens Peter and Florence Fanning launched a legal challenge against the Scottish and United Kingdom governments on Wednesday, over their decision to stop helping most retired people with their winter fuel bills.

The couple, from Coatbridge, near the Scottish city of Glasgow, argued during a procedural hearing at the Court of Session in Edinburgh that the governments failed to adequately consult pensioners about the plan to scrap winter fuel payments, and that they did not release an equality impact assessment analyzing the change.

A substantive hearing into the complaint will take place on Jan 15.

The Unite trade union is launching a similar legal challenge in the High Court in London relating to England and Wales.

The Fannings' legal challenge, which is being supported by the Govan Law Centre, was launched after the UK's Labour Party government said soon after its July 4 election victory that the universal payment of 300 pounds ($380) for people older than 80 and 200 pounds for those aged 65 to 79, will now only be available for the country's means-tested poorest seniors.

Speaking as he launched the legal challenge, Peter Fanning said: "We are hoping to be successful, given the manifest injustice involved, however my work as a trade unionist and shop steward has taught me that some battles are worth fighting regardless of the outcome: I believe this is one such battle."

A UK government spokesperson responded by saying: "Over a million pensioners will still receive the winter fuel payment, and our drive to boost pension credit take-up (which supplements pensioners on low incomes) has already seen a 152 percent increase in claims."

The government says scrapping winter fuel payments will save the UK 1.5 billion pounds a year.

The country's finance minister, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves, said as she announced the change that the money saved would help plug a 22-billion-pound "black hole" in the UK's finances that she discovered when the Labour Party government replaced the Conservative Party administration that had run the country for the previous 14 years.

Critics of the move say 100,000 additional pensioners will be forced into poverty because of it, and that people will go cold this winter as a result.

The devolved government in Scotland, which followed the central government's lead in July and announced it was also scrapping the winter fuel payment, has since announced it will provide a new winter fuel benefit for Scottish pensioners from late 2025.

Shirley Anne Somerville, Scotland's social justice secretary, said last week every pensioner household in Scotland will receive the benefit, with poorer pensioners getting either 200 pounds or 300 pounds, depending on their age, and wealthier pensioners receiving 100 pounds.

The central government has ruled out doing something similar for the rest of the UK.

earle@mail.chinadailyuk.com