Pensions Minister Torsten Bell has ruled out restoring the winter fuel allowance to all pensioners, insisting there is no prospect of a return to the universal payment.
Appearing before the work and pensions committee, Bell insisted ministers were committed to some form of means testing, telling MPs: “The principle, I think most people – 95 per cent of people – agree that it’s not a good idea that we have a system paying a few £100 to millionaires.”
He added: “We are not going to be continuing with that, but we will be looking at making more pensioners eligible.”
Bell also dismissed suggestions that tweaking pension credit rules could expand access to the allowance. Some MPs have called for changes to the eligibility threshold, but Bell argued that this reflected a misunderstanding of how the system works.
“Pension credit is not like a threshold of the Universal Credit system. It is a minimum income guarantee that we are topping everybody up to if they have an income below that,” he said.
“If the objective was [for] more people to receive the winter fuel payment, you can’t achieve it via that mechanism. You would only get a very small increase in the pension credit threshold for any given level of spending.”
Chancellor Rachel Reeves aused a speech on Wednesday morning to confirm that the changes to winter fuel paymen eligibility would be put in place before the winter.
“We have now put our public finances on a firmer footing. The economy is in a better shape but we have also listening to the level of concern so they will be in place so pensioners will be paid this coming winter,” she told reporters.
The i Paper revealed last month that ministers were looking to fast-track the expansion of eligibility for winter fuel payments to ensure pensioners receive the cash in time for the colder months, The i Paper understands.
A No 10 source said that an announcement about changes to the policy may no longer be tied to a fiscal event, which would allow them to be confirmed sooner than the autumn Budget.
Speaking to broadcasters in May, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner appeared to call for the Treasury to set out who will be due for the payment in the upcoming Spending Review in June.
She said she “hope[d]” an announcement on the details would come next month.
Rayner told the BBC: “What the Prime Minister said on Wednesday is when economic conditions allow […] Keir Starmer says we want to do something around the eligibility for winter fuel allowance.”
Asked if the Government would announce the measures on 11 June, when the Spending Review is scheduled for, she said: “I hope so, but I don’t know, but I hope so.”
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