72-year-old Lynn Emm cannot afford to turn her heating on despite temperatures plummeting below freezing throughout January. The pensioner blames Rachel Reeves after she stripped millions of retirees of the winter fuel payments.
Two years ago, Ms Emm was subject to an online scam which meant she lost £200,000 – her entire life savings. Now she says she has been left “miserable and abandoned” after being denied winter fuel support.
“What the Government has done is appalling, it’s disgraceful,” she told the Telegraph, adding that she feels Labour has abandoned pensioners like her.
Ms Emm explains: “It doesn’t seem fair. I’ve worked all my life, done a respectable job, contributed and paid my taxes. Now I’m all alone.”
A polar ice blast has blanketed the UK for the past week, with many areas seeing subzero temperatures. Some regions fell to lows of-14C, yet many pensioners, including Ms Emm, are left unable to heat their homes.
The Government changed last year eligibility for the allowance of £200. A staggering 10 million retirees have now been excluded from these payments after Labour’s change.
Ms Emm, a former teacher, says she is “really scared” to turn on her heating due to being unable to pay the bill. She misses out on the winter fuel allowance by a mere £3 as she receives the full new state pension, which is £221.20 a week.
After falling victim to an online scam, the retiree feels like she has been stripped of her money again.
“This money was supposed to give me some comfort and pay for a few small luxuries in my retirement. It is completely gone and now the Government has cruelly taken away the winter fuel allowance and I am forced to scrimp and scrape to survive with no savings to fall back on,” she says.
Ms Emm says she is too “frightened” to turn the heating on for more than an hour or two a day, instead she wraps herself in blankets while keeping moving. She has also invested in an electric blanket.
The former teacher lives in Chiswick, west London, where freezing temperatures of -3C have been forecast.
Due to living off her state pension after her savings were taken, she says the payments go nearly entirely on bills and food. “I don’t buy any luxuries or comforts,” she says.
Ms Emm has turned to charities for financial support such as Lightning Reach, which launched a Winter Warmth Network for struggling pensioners. Like many people, she worries about her health saying: “I feel the cold really badly as I’ve got very slow circulation. When you get to my age it shouldn’t be like this.”