All the research shows these free school meals will help children learn, improve life chances, and ease pressures on struggling families. It’s a policy with economic, social and moral strength. Amazing.
And that, in a nutshell, is the problem. Because until this weeping ulcer of a policy problem is cut out, it will continue to poison. And even then, it will leave a scar.
The moral failing of the winter fuel payment being stripped from 10 million people to only the 1.5 million on pension credit was it left those on the cusp of eligibility having to choose between heating and eating. It left many millions more only slightly better off, wondering why they had grafted their entire lives without ever receiving a penny of state help, only to become the very first victims of a Labour government street mugging.
It undermined faith in the basic principle of the welfare state – reciprocity. You put in/ you get out. And they felt done over by Keir Starmer, a steady looking bloke they had put their faith in after that last lot, only for his government to turn into another episode of Angela Rippon’s Rip Off Britain.
Of course, many pensioners neither needed nor wanted the allowance, while the Treasury desperately needed that £1.5bn for the NHS, schools and pay deals. (And don’t forget the £22bn black hole).
Even this, which seems a generally sensible solution, will have its problems –more pensioners will be dragged into paying tax and there are concerns grieving families could be chased for unpaid tax after a bereavement.
Another option being considered, as revealed here in The i Paper, is that more than a million pensioners on housing and disability benefits will be returned the payment. This will cost less – about £300m – but will please less too.
Anger about the winter fuel payment has, I believe, radicalised millions towards more extreme right-wing politics. Those who bit their tongue at the rise of identity politics and kept quiet about immigration concerns for fear of starting a row with the grandkids woke up with the winter fuel cut to the sense that all their work, all their beliefs, all their faith in Britain had been chucked back at them. They were nothing more than a drain on the state. And the younger generation, too busy looking at their phones to give up a seat on the bus, were happy to see their one state benefit snatched from them.
Some good news is that whichever solution is chosen for returning the allowance, Chancellor Rachel Reeves has confirmed the payment of up to £300 will be with older people in time for this winter. There had initially been concerns it could take until the winter of 2026 to reinstate.
There is an opportunity to put right the wrong of winter fuel with a proper programme around ending child poverty and setting up a new generation for success.
Free school meals should be just the very beginning, not the end, of this. It won’t undo all the political damage of the winter fuel row, but at least once this policy ulcer starts to heal then the Government can focus its attention – and the nation’s attention – on policies that care.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Pensioners have been radicalised by anger – the winter fuel U-turn won’t fix it )
Also on site :