Donation warning after winter fuel payment decision

The charity said it could not help as many people in fuel poverty as it had been able to previously

A charity supporting vulnerable residents has said donations could be down by thousands of pounds, after a bid to block winter fuel payment cuts failed in Parliament.

On Tuesday, the government won a vote on the plan to restrict the payments to all but the poorest pensioners by a majority of 120.

Community Resource in Shropshire partly relies on pensioners who can afford to donate their winter payment, which then gets handed on to those who need it more.

The charity said it could not help as many people in fuel poverty as it had been able to in the past two years.

Stacey Teece, from Community Resource, said it relied on "really generous supporters" who receive the winter fuel allowance but do not need it.

She added: "So we can give it to those who are really, really [in] need and with people not receiving that this year, we're really going to feel the cut.

"It's about 40% of donations we feel will be down this year. So we're talking thousands of pounds."

'More referrals'

Ms Teece said people who did not receive the winter fuel allowance but needed it and "don't qualify for the pension credit will be left without anywhere to turn, except our appeal".

She added: "We'll be squeezed... We'll be getting more referrals in, needing that help, and less money through the actual appeal."

The government won the vote by 348 votes to 228.

Fifty-two Labour MPs did not take part in the vote, including seven ministers, but it was not clear how many deliberately abstained or were absent from Parliament for other reasons.

Sir Keir Starmer has refused to say whether his government will publish an assessment of the impact of removing winter fuel payments from most pensioners.

At Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday, Conservative leader Rishi Sunak accused the prime minister of "hiding" the analysis and asked how many deaths would be caused by the policy.

Sir Keir said his decisions to "stabilise the economy" meant he could increase general pension payments, which would make up for the lost allowance.