£300 Winter Fuel Payment axe is 'worst decision' ever seen

A former pensions minister has branded the £300 Winter Fuel Payment cut the "worst decision" he has ever seen. Sir Steve Webb, who served as pensions minister under the coalition Liberal Democrats and Conservative Party, has spoken out alongside Baroness Ros Altman.

It comes as new Labour Party Chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed £300 Winter Fuel Payments could be scrapped for some pensioners - and instead changed to target claimants on the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) benefit Pensions Credit.

Ms Altmann has tabled a “fatal” parliamentary motion to kill off the government’s controversial plan to limit winter fuel payments, describing it as “one of the worst decisions I have ever seen”. Altmann was appointed by David Cameron as pensions minister in 2015 despite being a Labour party member.

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And she has pushed her motion to a vote in the House of Lords this week because she felt so strongly. The motion, known in parliamentary jargon as a “fatal” motion, calls for the measures “to be annulled because they would significantly reduce state support for pensioners without sufficient warning and without a proper impact assessment, and because they present a significant risk to the health and wellbeing of many pensioners on low incomes”.

She added: “I am just so flummoxed because I cannot believe that they believe what they are saying.” She said: “As policy, it ranks as one of the worst decisions I have ever seen. I will push it to a vote. The aim is to stop this and to get the Commons to think again.”

Another MP said of Ms Reeves, the Chancellor: “Rachel’s lines aren’t working, and I don’t understand why she is persisting. There isn’t an MP I’ve spoken to who isn’t worried. MPs will be hearing it in spades this weekend in their constituencies.”