Winter fuel payment: We spend it on holidays, say some pensioners

The issue of who needs the support is at the heart of the change to the WFP. Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures show that the proportion of wealthy over-65s has grown.

In 2010, 9% of this group lived in a household that had a total wealth – including assets like their home and pensions – above £1 million. Ten years later, this rose to 27%.

Liz Emerson, CEO of the Intergenerational Foundation, a charity that campaigns for youth-friendly government policy, says it is being fuelled by rising property values.

“Alongside that, they have more generous private pensions than young people,” she explains. “So when you combine housing wealth and pension wealth, older people have been doing far better than the younger generation over recent years.”

Yet this isn’t just about millionaires – many of those who say they do not need WFP, like those the BBC spoke to, are simply on healthy pensions after years of working.

Others are more wealthy, especially if they have sold high-value property and downsized to a house that is far less expensive to heat, ending up with leftover cash in the process.

For those who don’t sell up, Ms Emerson asks: “Should these pensioners be subsidised by younger taxpayers to stay in a valuable home? It seems to us to be intergenerationally unfair.”