Pensioners born before 1959 have been warned over a “worrying” moment as the Winter Fuel Payment axe is followed by a -8C snow storm this weekend. Age UK director Caroline Abrahams criticised the Labour Party Government’s decision to limit the £300 Winter Fuel Allowance.
Ms Abrahams spoke out ahead of the cold blast this weekend – saying the loss of the cash will be put “into sharp relief” by the cold snap. Ms Abrahams revealed that the charity had already been contacted by older people “worrying about what to do when this moment arrived”.
The charity director said: “We urge older people to do everything they can to stay warm, even if that means risking spending more on their heating than they feel they can afford. The energy companies are under an obligation to help if you are struggling and there may be support available from your local council too.”
READ MORE All parts of England that WON’T see snow this weekend according to Met Office
The UK has been hit by a blast of cold weather, with temperatures falling as low as -5C (23F) overnight amid forecasts of snow and freezing rain. Meteorologists had warned that temperatures overnight could plummet to as low as -8C as a week-long spell of wintry conditions hit the UK.
Dan Stroud, a meteorologist at the Met Office, said conditions should become warmer by the end of this weekend before the cold weather returns early next week. He said: “The second half of the weekend should be in the high singles or low doubles (for temperature figures). But temperatures will dive again next week, particularly on Monday and Tuesday.
“They should start to improve towards the latter end of the week. But there’s a lot of water to go under the bridge until then.” The Met Office meteorologist Tom Morgan said: “We’ve issued a very large snow warning for Saturday until Monday but it doesn’t mean that everywhere within that warning could see snow, it’s just a heads-up there could be some impacts.”