Ted Heath's £10 Christmas present to UK's 12.5 million pensioners really is 'absurd' in 2022 – Susan Dalgety

There was an unexpected item in my bank statement just before Christmas. The Department for Work and Pensions paid me £10 on December 15. I assumed that it was something to do with my state pension (yes, I am that old).

When Edward Heath introduced the £10 Christmas gift for pensioners in 1972, it was worth a lot more (Picture: Fred Mott/Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Perhaps I had been underpaid a few pounds since it started in August and this was the refund, I fleetingly thought. Then I forgot all about it until my husband asked if I had received my pensioner’s Christmas bonus yet, and what was I planning to spend it on?

He had been reading about it on Twitter, where financial guru Paul Johnson of the Institute of Fiscal Studies had described the handout as “an absurd remnant from history”, similar to the dog licence, which was set at seven shillings and sixpence in 1878 and remained the same price (37p) until it was finally abolished 100 years later.

It turns out the stray tenner in my bank was indeed a festive gift from the government – a tradition that was started back in 1972 by the then Tory Prime Minister, Ted Heath. Back in the day, £10 was worth something. The weekly pension was only £6.75 a week, so the Christmas bonus made a big difference to people’s lives. Apparently it was supposed to pay for a family Christmas meal with all the trimmings. Today, a small frozen turkey will set you back at least £20.

Johnson says that no government has ever had the nerve to abolish the now paltry payment, so it just languishes there. I decided to give mine to charity – not because I am particularly generous, but because I am lucky enough, despite my spendthrift habits, not to need it. But there are many, many pensioners who could do with a proper Christmas bonus.

There are around 12.5 million people in receipt of the state pension in the UK – so the pensioners’ Christmas bonus costs a whopping £125 million a year. I don’t need the money and most pensioners, if they were honest, don’t either. It would be much better if it was shared among the people who really need it – those who receive Pension Credit – rather than wasted on folk who don’t even know what they are getting.