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Pensioner Benefits: Cameron Ally Wants Cuts

Wealthy pensioners should lose their free bus passes and prescriptions, according to plans being suggested by a close ally of David Cameron.

Tory moderniser Nick Boles also wants other universal benefits such as free TV licences for the over-75s and winter fuel payments to be means-tested from 2015.

In a speech to the independent think tank the Resolution Foundation , the MP will argue that older people must shoulder their fair share of spending cuts.

The Prime Minister promised during the 2010 election campaign that the benefits would be retained by a Conservative government and has vowed not to touch them during this parliament.

But Mr Boles' intervention is being taken as an indication there is a growing view that universal state handouts for pensioners, which cost an estimated £5bn, cannot continue indefinitely.

It comes after Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith suggested last month that the commitment would be reassessed in the run-up to the next election.

Mr Boles concedes changes would be politically difficult but insists the Government has to admit it cannot continue to protect the payments after the next election.

He will say: "If we are to achieve stability in our public finances and make crucial investments in improving productivity and competitiveness, we must find further savings from the welfare budget.

"And if we are going to protect spending on pensions - as we should - equity between the generations requires that these cuts cannot only fall on adults of working age.

"We need to acknowledge now that we will not be able to continue the protection of these other benefits for better-off pensioners after 2015.

"The coalition is going to be confronted with some very hard choices on public spending - in Government the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have already shown that we are willing and able to grit our teeth and take unpopular decisions in what we believe is the national interest.

"Is the current leadership of the Labour Party willing and able to do the same? We know what cuts Ed Miliband and Ed Balls oppose but very little about those they support. We know what further spending they would like to see but very little about the taxes they would raise."