State pensioners face heartbreaking 'this or that' choice due to new DWP rule

State pensioners face being forced to choose between heating and eating due to the Department for Work and Pensions ( DWP ) Winter Fuel Payments cut, it has been warned. Recently-published forecasts from the DWP showed that 50,000 pensioners will be pushed into poverty within a year by cuts to the £300 payouts.

It’s a policy decision demonstrating that “older people continue to be neglected”, according to Sarah Marie Hall, an academic and inequalities researcher at the University of Manchester. “Many people thought the Labour government was coming in on a helpful mandate,” she said.

She told the Big Issue: “There’s been lots of talk of austerity ending, but austerity only continues to bite. And it bites hardest for those most in need.” Ms Hall went on and said: “We talk a lot about in-work poverty. We talk a lot about young people in poverty. All of that is absolutely right – it’s critical.

READ MORE UK faces 1 inch snow per hour this week with three parts of England worst-hit

"What can often remain hidden is that a lot of older people experience extreme poverty too. It’s not a case of a cliff-edge. It’s entering into later life with that very austere condition extending further, there’s no escape from it. It’s endemic and it seeps into every part of people’s lives.”

“We know that falling into poverty means they will have to make difficult decisions about what to cut back on, whether that’s food, heating or other costs,” Tom Pollard, head of social policy for the New Economics Foundation, told Big Issue.

“For older people in particular, this can leave them even more vulnerable to poor health and isolation.” A new Labour Party government spokesperson told Big Issue that the modelling on poverty estimates was “produced as part of routine policy advice”.

The modelling was published last week in the wake of Chancellor Rachel Reeves' decision back in July.