More pensioners will receive winter fuel payments this year, Reeves confirms
More pensioners will receive the winter fuel allowance this year, the Chancellor has confirmed.
Rachel Reeves told reporters on Wednesday that 'more people' would receive the payment this winter, adding that further details would be announced 'as soon as we possibly can'.
She added: 'People should be in no doubt that the means test will increase and more people will get winter fuel payment this winter.'
It comes after Sir Keir Starmer was forced into a climbdown following a Labour rebellion over benefit cuts, which were blamed for Labour's disastrous performance in the local elections last month at the hands of Reform UK.
The party, led by Nigel Farage, continues to top opinion polls and last month committed to fully reinstating winter fuel payments if it wins the next general election.
Earlier on Wednesday, Torsten Bell, the pensions minister, told MPs that while more pensioners would be eligible, there was no prospect of returning to universal winter fuel payments.
Speaking to the work and pensions committee, Mr Bell said: 'Directly on your question of is there any prospect of a universal winter fuel payment, the answer is no.
'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 hundreds of pounds to millionaires, and so we're not going to be continuing with that.
'But we will be looking at making more pensioners eligible.'
The Prime Minister recently signalled a partial about-turn over the Government's decision, which stripped winter fuel payments from millions of pensioners.
Sir Keir said, 'as the economy improves', he wanted to look at widening eligibility for the payments worth up to £300.
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