‘Our heroes are freezing’: how Labour’s winter fuel raid is punishing war veterans

Retired troops forced to skip meals and stay indoors to make ends meet

Mike Ryan served in the Royal Navy for 25 years but has been left in “dire straits” after being stripped of the winter fuel allowance.
His wife Liz told The Telegraph: “Mike fought in three wars. Now the Government could destroy us.”
The couple, from Cornwall, are devastated by Rachel Reeves’s decision to limit the winter fuel allowance to those in receipt of pension credit. Previously, all pensioners were handed winter fuel payments.
While Mrs Ryan is 62 and therefore still of working age, she cannot earn because she cannot “leave him on his own”.
During service, the 80-year-old was injured and now suffers from tinnitus and severe depression. They do not qualify for pension credit but can barely make ends meet.
“We are in dire straits financially. We couldn’t tighten the purse strings any more than we have. I have one meal a day, Mike has two. We’ve got our last mortgage payment at the end of this month and I don’t know how we’re going to pay it,” Mrs Ryan admitted.
“We cannot afford to go out, so Mike doesn’t socialise which is very important for someone who has lived their life around people.”
After the Chancellor’s shock announcement in July that millions would lose out on the £300 payment, it has fallen upon the shoulders of local support groups to look after veterans.
When pensioners reached out to her, Lorie Anne Coffey decided to set up a Go Fund Me page to fundraise contributions for war veterans’ bills this winter.
She said: “Our war heroes are freezing, but they deserve so much better. I’m desperate to help.”
Ms Coffey runs Project 71 in Portsmouth, a club for veterans in the area which has been running for 12 years. The youngest member is 98, and the oldest, a woman who worked at Bletchley Park, is 103. Seven of the veterans turned 100 this year.
“They deserve better, they need to be warm. They don’t deserve to be sitting in just one room or to bed at 6pm because they’re so cold but are too afraid to put the heating on.
“For what they’ve done and experienced, they shouldn’t have to sit there in the cold,” Ms Coffey said.
She has slammed the Government’s decision, adding: “The Chancellor will be fine in her warm home while war heroes are freezing. It shouldn’t be like this. They have made a huge mistake. It stinks, all of it.”
The Social Security Advisory Committee has warned that means-testing the allowance will push pensioners into poverty. But the Chancellor defended her actions, claiming it will save £1.5bn a year as part of efforts to fill a supposed £22bn fiscal black hole.
There are 1.6 million pensioners living in poverty and 900,000 who are only just above the poverty line who will lose their payments, according to Age UK.