No decision on winter fuel allowance until autumn, minister says

Independent

5 hours ago

No decision will be taken on the winter fuel allowance until the Autumn budget – dispelling speculation that the government would make an announcement on it at next week's spending review.
Sir Keir Starmer last month announced his intention to give more people access to winter fuel payments, just months after Labour decided to means test the previously universal payment.
But weeks later, chaotic government messaging had left millions of pensioners with no idea what the changes will look like or when they will be announced.
Asked about the changes, Peter Kyle, the secretary of state for science, innovation and technology, told Sky News: 'These issues are going to be dealt with in the run up to the autumn where these decisions are going to be taken and announced.
'But this is a spending review that's going to set the overall spending constraints for government for the next period, the next three years.'
Pressed on whether that means no details will be unveiled on winter fuel next week, the technology secretary said: 'I think what you're going to see is the overall spending constraints and allowances for each government department, and then each department is then going to start talking about how it's going to allocate those.'
Last week, Rachel Reeves confirmed the expected U-turn on the controversial cuts would be in place for this winter, meaning that the government will be faced with a scramble to get the changes rolled out between the October budget and the winter months.
While the chancellor had previously confirmed that they would not set out how the changes would be paid for until the autumn, there was a growing suggestion from the government that details on who the changes would affect could be set out at next week's spending review.
The chancellor is expected to unveil a swathe of spending cuts on Wednesday as she attempts to walk the tightrope between delivering on the party's election promises and sticking within the bounds of her self-imposed fiscal rules.
Mr Kyle's comments come days after pensions minister Torsten Bell confirmed there was no prospect of returning to a universal winter fuel payment for all, saying that '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.'
Winter fuel payments are a £300 payment to help with energy costs in the colder months. In July, the chancellor announced that pensioners not in receipt of pension credits or other means-tested benefits would no longer receive the benefit.
As a result, just 1.5 million pensioners received the payment in winter 2024-25 – a massive drop from the 10.8 million pensioners who received it the year before.
The cuts were deeply unpopular because they were seen as being disproportionately damaging to vulnerable people, and were criticised for leaving thousands of poorer pensions who were on the borderline missing out on the payment.
In November, it was revealed that the government's own figures indicated it would force 100,000 pensioners into poverty in 2026.
The policy was partly blamed for Labour's poor performance at the local elections – which saw them lose two-thirds of the council seats they had in 2021– as well as the previously Labour-held Runcorn and Helsby parliamentary seat to Reform UK.
The cuts – combined with the £5bn welfare cuts and the party's decision to keep the two child benefit cap in place – have sparked growing concern over the direction of the government among Labour MPs.