Winter fuel payments to be restored to millions of pensioners this winter after Labour Government u-turn
The rethink followed a major political backlash that derailed the Labour Government.
The Labour Government is planning to reinstate winter fuel payments for millions of pensioners this winter after a major u-turn.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves said she had 'listened' to concerns and is committed to a more generous means-tested system.
Labour sparked a major backlash last year after withdrawing a payment of up to £300 for ten million pensioners.
She instead linked the cash sum to eligibility for pension credit and other benefits.
However, the policy is widely believed to have to damaged Labour's poll rating and led to recent election losses.
Reeves confirmed changes to the policy would be introduced this winter: "We have listened to the concerns that people had about the level of the means test, and so we will be making changes to that, they will be in place so that pensioners are paid this coming winter.
"We'll announce the detail of that and the level of that as soon as we possibly can. But people should be in no doubt that the means test will increase and more people will get a winter fuel payment this winter."
The payment is devolved to Holyrood, but changes to the system south of the border will lead to extra funding for the Scottish Parliament.
The SNP Government has already committed to restoring payments to every pensioner on a tiered basis.
A Labour source said the means-test would likely lead to millions of pensioners receiving the payment again, but not wealthier older people.
UK pensions minister Torsten Bell told MPs that, while more pensioners will be eligible, there is no prospect of returning to universal winter fuel payments.
Speaking to the Work and Pensions Committee, 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% 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.'
Bell said he did not have 'lots to add' to what Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer had said recently about the allowance.
The Prime Minister said 'as the economy improves', he wanted to look at widening eligibility for the payments worth up to £300.
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