Chancellor Rachel Reeves has defended her decision to restrict winter fuel payments for around 10 million pensioners. Reeves disclosed the government uncovered a £22bn hole in the public finances. “I had to act” to “fix the mess,” she said. One of the decisions announced on Monday was that pensioners in England and Wales not on pension credit or other means-tested benefits will no longer get winter fuel payments worth between £100 and £300.
Reeves said pension credit would merge with housing benefit so more people entitled to it will claim, and the government would work with older people’s charities and local government to increase take-up. However, former Conservative pensions minister Baroness Ros Altmann told the BBC she was “shocked that the chancellor has chosen to take money away from some of the poorest people in this country”.
Approximately 850,000 households in England and Wales who are eligible to receive pension credit do not claim it, according to figures released by the Department for Work and Pensions last year. Baroness Altmann said many do not claim as they are “too proud” to do so. The move was also criticised by Age UK, which said “as many as two million pensioners who badly need the money to stay warm this winter will not receive it and will be in trouble as a result”.
Reeves said the previous government and former chancellor Jeremy Hunt hid a large shortfall in public money, an accusation Mr Hunt strongly denied. As well as restricting winter fuel payments, on Monday, the chancellor scrapped a planned cap on social care costs and axed several transport projects. Mr Hunt has disputed Reeves’ comments and has written to Cabinet Secretary Simon Case to complain about what he sees as conflicting claims made by officials about the “black hole
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