Department of Health and Social Care written question – answered at on 30 September 2024.
Dr Caroline Johnson
Shadow Parliamentary Under Secretary (Health and Social Care), Shadow Minister (Health and Social Care)
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment with Cabinet colleagues of the potential impact of the proposed changes to the eligibility criteria for the Winter Fuel Payment on (a) the number of (i) acute admissions to hospital, (ii) patients attending emergency departments, (iii) elderly people (A) with pneumonia, (B) requiring antibiotics and (C) GP appointments, (b) the risk of death in elderly people, (c) the number of deaths and (d) NHS expenditure.
Andrew Gwynne
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health and Social Care
The Government is committed to a preventative approach to the public’s health. Keeping people warm and well at home, and improving the quality of new and existing homes, will play an essential part in enabling people to live longer, healthier lives, and reducing pressures on the National Health Service.
In deciding on Winter Fuel Payment eligibility, the Government had regard to the equality analysis, in line with the Public Sector Equality Duty requirements. The equality analysis was published on 13 September 2024, and is available at the following link:
The NHS is preparing for coming winter pressures as it does each year, and there will be an absolute focus on minimising long waiting times in accident and emergency and supporting patient safety.
We will continue to stand behind vulnerable households this winter. Support includes delivering the £150 Warm Home Discount for low-income households from October, extending the Household Support Fund with £421 million, to ensure local authorities can support vulnerable people and families, and ensuring around 1.3 million households in England and Wales will continue to receive up to £300 in Winter Fuel Payments. Through our commitment to protect the triple lock, over 12 million pensioners will benefit, with many expected to see their State Pension increase by more than £1,000 over the next five years.
The Fuel Poverty strategy for England, Sustainable warmth: protecting vulnerable households in England, was published in February 2021. The 2021 strategy is currently under review. The Department of Health and Social Care works closely with the Department for Energy and Net Zero to ensure that fuel poor and health vulnerable households are supported.
Yes5 people think so
No4 people think not
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Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.
A household is said to be in fuel poverty when its members cannot afford to keep adequately warm at reasonable cost, given their income.
