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The Guardian - UK

Politics

Peter Walker Senior political correspondent

Why is Labour’s proposed winter fuel payments cut controversial?

Rachel Reeves Gordon Brown

A senior woman holds a gas bill against the windowsill and puts her hands to a radiator; she is wearing a cardigan and the light suggests it is winter — The winter fuel payment was introduced in 1997 by the then chancellor, Gordon Brown, to help older people with their heating costs. Photograph: Marina113/Getty Images/iStockphoto

The decision to axe winter fuel payments in England and Wales for all but the poorest pensioners has become the Labour government’s first political crisis. So what is it about?

What is the benefit, and how is it changing?

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