Labelling matters: Households spend 40% of Winter Fuel Payment on fuel. But poor pensioners still cut back on food in cold weather

8 Jun 2011 10:28 AM

Two papers published yesterday by the IFS and funded by the Nuffield Foundation show that:

Households receiving the winter fuel payment are almost 14 times as likely to spend the money on fuel than would have been the case had their incomes been increased in other ways;

But in very cold weather it remains the case that the poorest pensioners cut back on spending on food to finance the additional cost of heating their homes.

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