This is a reader's letter published in the Hereford Times on October 31.

David Oram, Kington

Whilst I am very grateful to receive the extra 25p a week pension for over 80s the loss of the winter fuel allowance seems ill-considered in the extreme. 

This policy is not unlike an undergraduate economics exercise to reorientate an economy, e.g. ‘There aren’t many train drivers so they can have an around £9000 raise, but there are lots of pensioners so we can have £300 off each of them.’

It seems like a purely academic exercise in economics with no humanitarian considerations like the fact that pensioners feel the cold more, and are often thin. 

ALSO READ:

What are your thoughts?

You can send a letter to the editor to have your say by clicking here.

Letters should not exceed 250 words and local issues take precedence.

Whilst those below the threshold (£332.95 per week) can claim pension credits and the winter fuel allowance, those just above cannot, and it is the many thousands of those who will find the loss particularly difficult. The means testing level is far too low. 

Let us hope that the allowance is restored in the budget, and that the government is ‘big’ enough to realise its naive political mistake. 

We will then find out if the Chancellor does really have a heart of gold! Or, will it be that, first we had ‘Maggie Thatcher, milk snatcher’, now we’ve got ‘Starmer-Reeves, fuel thieves’?