Responding to the UK government’s decision to partially reverse the cut in winter fuel payments, Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: 

“Commonsense has finally prevailed as the winter fuel cut is reversed for most pensioners in England and Wales. We now need to see this reversed in Northern Ireland and Scotland. We are calling for the Stormont Executive to immediately extend this commitment to pensioners in the region as part of a wider reversal of this disastrous policy.

“Leadership is about choices and the choice to pit workers against pensioners was simply wrong.”

Susan Fitzgerald, Unite regional secretary said, “This is a major win for the pensioners campaign – in which Unite has played a leading role. There can be no excuses now from Stormont – we need to see the universal access to this payment for all pensioners restored by the executive.”

When the government announced it was cutting the winter fuel payment, Unite mounted a political and grassroots campaign to get the decision overturned – including a march on Stormont and organising a vote at Labour conference opposing the cut in winter fuel payments. In Scotland and Northern Ireland the campaign secured a partial mitigation of the cut through the provision of a £100 per pensioner household payment to all affected pensioners.