Share this post:

Labour’s hasty reversal on winter fuel payments is being widely hailed as a victory for public pressure — and in some ways, it is!

But if you think this U-turn means the government is suddenly listening, think again.

This is not a sign of compassion.

It’s a political panic move after Labour’s humiliating collapse in the local elections last month.

And while Rachel Reeves wants you to believe the government is “listening,” the truth is she’s hoping you won’t notice the real betrayal coming in her other policies — like a planned £5 billion raid on disabled people’s benefits.

The U-turn: what changed?

Last year, right after being elected, Labour scrapped universal winter fuel payments, restricting them to people on Pension Credit — effectively taking up to £300 a year away from millions of pensioners.

The fallout was swift, especially among lower-income pensioners who didn’t qualify for means-tested benefits but were still struggling with energy bills.

Now, following fury at the ballot box, Labour is scrambling to undo the damage.

Pensioners earning up to £35,000 a year will once again receive the winter fuel payment — about 75 per cent of pensioners in total. That’s not back to being universal, but a lot closer than it was.

This partial climbdown will cost £1.25 billion — wiping out most of the £1.7 billion Labour claimed to be saving with the original cut.

They’re still patting themselves on the back, though – for saving a supposed £450 million.

It’s an embarrassing mess — and proof that Labour’s instincts were never about fairness or targeting support where it was most needed.

It was always about making cuts first and dealing with the consequences later.

The bigger picture: £5 billion in disability cuts are coming

Here’s what they don’t want you talking about: the looming £5 billion cut to disability benefits.

This policy, being packaged as “reform” and to be outlined in Reeves’s Spending Review on Wednesday (June 11), is far more damaging than anything involving winter fuel payments.

It’s not just morally indefensible — it’s economically incoherent.

Reeves insists these cuts are necessary to meet her self-imposed fiscal rules.

But cutting disability benefits won’t actually save £5 billion.

It will just transfer the cost elsewhere — to the NHS, to councils, to unpaid carers, and to the people most in need, who’ll be forced into crisis.

When disabled people lose income, they don’t just disappear.

They end up in A&E.

They go into rent arrears.

They rely more on food banks, GPs, crisis teams, and emergency social care.

Any savings in DWP spending will be swallowed up — and then some — by the pressure this puts on other services.

Even the Tories never managed to push through disability cuts on this scale without backlash.

Labour’s attempt to do it under cover of “fiscal responsibility” is not only cynical — it’s cowardly.

Why this matters

Don’t let Labour get away with spinning a partial U-turn into a compassionate gesture.

Don’t let them use a £1.25bn backtrack to justify a £5bn assault on disabled people.

Winter fuel payments are important, and the U-turn is a small win — but the bigger picture is bleak.

Reeves’s “ugly” Spending Review is expected to deliver brutal real-terms cuts across departments — and disabled people are in the crosshairs first.

The truth is, Labour’s economic plan isn’t about fairness.

It’s about appeasing markets and headlines, no matter the human cost.

And unless we keep calling this out — loudly and clearly…

More people will be left cold, hungry, and abandoned.

Share this post: