Unite is continuing its legal action against the Government in a bid to overturn winter fuel cuts for millions of pensioners.
Unite claims the government failed to follow the correct procedure and has instructed lawyers to ask the High Court for an urgent judicial review of the government's decision to limit payments to poorer pensioners.
The policy, announced in July, attracted criticism, with Chancellor Rachel Reeves saying it aimed to plug a £22 billion hole in the public finances.
Sharon Graham, general secretary of Unite, told the BBC that “picking pensioners' pockets is wrong on every level”.
An estimated 10 million pensioners will lose their winter fuel payment, worth between £100 and £300. The benefit will still be paid to those who receive pension credit or other means-tested support.
Among them are 200,000 Unite members, and the union says it is acting on behalf of retired members who are struggling to get by.
Many of them have modest private pensions, making them ineligible for pension credit – and therefore winter fuel payments – Unite said.
Juliet Jeater is one of them and one of 11 Unite members who joined the union as part of the legal action.
She told the BBC that she felt the threshold for pension credit was too low and that to qualify for it “you really have to be on the livelihood line”.
Jeater, a 70-year-old retired teacher who lives in a Northamptonshire village, said she needed the winter fuel payment to pay for heating her cottage.
During the recent cold snap, a neighbor who was a scaffolder gave him some scrap wood to heat his house.
A former Labor member, Jeater said she was surprised to find herself in a better situation under the last Conservative government.
She said: “I am very angry about what happened.
“Last year, when we had a Conservative government, I received five hundred pounds, which was the winter heating allowance plus a cost of living allowance.
“This year I’m not getting anything.”
Jeater is now a Green Party activist.
Unite said the government should have done more to gather evidence of the impact of the cuts before announcing them.
Earlier this month, Unite threatened legal action unless the government reversed the cuts or produced more evidence to support them.
The government has undertaken a limited “equality analysis” and told parliament's work and pensions committee that 50,000 people could fall into relative poverty next year due to the withdrawal of payments – although this could be mitigated by increased recourse to pensions. Credit.
But the union says this does not constitute a full impact assessment that would also take into account the effects on the health of older people.
Ms Graham told the BBC the Government “introduced something without knowing what it's going to cost in terms of illness, what it's going to cost in terms of deaths”.
When asked why she supported potentially costly legal action, she replied: “What I want is for the courts to hear this quickly and say that if the proper impact assessment has not been carried out, then the government must actually return to the situation. At the beginning and in the meantime, they must pay the winter fuel allowance for this year.
Otherwise, she said “people will not forgive Labour's decision – picking the pockets of pensioners is wrong on every level”.
“This problem is not going to go away,” Ms. Graham said.
The union also claimed that the Independent Social Security Advisory Committee should have been consulted beforehand.
But in a letter to this committee, Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall said she needed to act urgently to put the necessary regulations in place before winter and make savings later this year. on public spending.
The government said it could not comment on ongoing legal proceedings.
But a spokesperson said the Government was committed to supporting pensioners and “millions of people would see their state pension increase by up to £1,900 in Parliament thanks to the triple lock”.
Some would also benefit from the £150 off Warm Home.
More than a million pensioners will still benefit from the winter fuel payment and applications for pension credit have increased significantly, the spokesperson added.
There is no guarantee that legal action will stop the cuts.
Government sources appear confident that this policy will not be overturned in court.
But Unite's action once again highlights the controversy surrounding budget cuts as winter approaches.
The pressure on the Westminster government is likely to increase further if the Scottish government decides to ease next week's budget cuts.
And the cross-party Work and Pensions Committee is due to undertake an inquiry into pensioner poverty – partly driven by budget cuts – in January.
