DWP Winter Fuel Payment Labour update as campaign grows to give it to state pensioners

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said the winter fuel payment chop would not be overturned
-Credit: (Image: BBC)


A Labour minister has given an update on the Winter Fuel Payment row - and doubled down saying there was no chance of it being reinstated. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy told BBC Breakfast ‘Our policy on that is not going to change’ after the decision to scrap Winter Fuel Payments of up to £300 for about 10 million pensioners.

Under the plan, only those in receipt of Pensions Credit will get the cash - some of the poorest people int eh cpountry. But some have criticised the policy for excluding many people who are struggling financially and won’t be able to heat their homes this winter.

BBC host Charlie Stayt asked: “Why did it fall so badly with people and have you got it fundamentally wrong?” Ms Nandy said: “Well, actually, there are mixed views out in the public about the winter fuel allowance. I think most people will accept that the very wealthiest shouldn’t be in receipt of something that costs the country over billion pounds a year. I think most people would accept that the very wealthiest pensioners shouldn’t be in receipt of a free allowance.”

Charlie cut in and said: “Sorry you were pointing the finger at very wealthy pensioners.” Ms Nandy replied: I’m not pointing the finger at anyone.” Stayt said: “That is the phrase you used.”

Ms Nandy continued: “It’s not a decision that we relish or that we wanted to take. It’s a decision that we’ve made because we were elected on a very clear promise to fix the foundations of the economy. We’ve got a 22 billion pounds black hole and the winter fuel allowance was a universal benefit for pensioners.

“And that means that some of the wealthier pensioners were getting a winter fuel allowance. When you’ve got young families who are really struggling with heating bills and others, what we’re doing with the winter fuel allowance is targeting..”

Stayt cut in, asking: “What you’re suggesting is you had to take a broad brush approach. Do you accept that there will be people within that who are hit much harder? You focused a moment ago on wealthy pensioners. Why are you not focusing on those further down?”

Ms Nandy said: “absolutely are. That is the focus. So a very small proportion of the poorest pensioners are currently in receipt of pension credit, which would enormously help them with their incomes, particularly this winter. What we’ve done as a government is to have a huge drive to get the up take of pension credit for those who are eligible to the right levels.

“We’ve had over 100 per cent increase in the last month alone. Because of that work in the number of people applying for pension credit, we’ll back date that so if people apply now or they apply this winter. They’ve got until April next year and it will be back dated so they don’t have to worry about putting the heating on. Only a very small proportion of people who are eligible previously applied. The last government did absolutely nothing about that.”

The exchange sparked an angry response on X with TheCommunitySpace saying: “#BBCBreakfast AGAIN comments about “rich” pensioners & #WinterFuelPayment yet @lisanandy NOT questioned about pensioners who DON’T qualify for Pension Credit but with income LESS than minimum wage⁉THEY ARE NOT RICH, but are AGAIN forgotten‼ WHY⁉ r is that question too hard⁉”

Another said: ”Get those MPs who signed up to scrap the WFA and get them to fill these forms in for all those pensioners who they say can claim it and that’s see how easy that is.” Caz said: “Why didn’t you ask what about pensioners just over a the pension credit, they are the ones been clobbered.”

Also she spoke about the row over Sir Keir Starmer’s freebies, explaining it was important to demonstrate the Government’s priorities are “the country’s priorities” after it emerged on the eve of Labour ’s annual gathering that clothing donations would no longer be accepted by the Prime Minister and his top brass.

Neither Sir Keir Starmer, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner nor Chancellor Rachel Reeves will accept such donations in the future. Sir Keir and his wife Lady Victoria Starmer had faced scrutiny over the acceptance of gifts, including clothing, from prominent Labour donor and peer Lord Alli.

The Financial Times newspaper meanwhile reported that donations “in kind” listed in the publicly available registers of interest for both Ms Reeves and Ms Rayner had also been for clothing.

The row has drawn criticism from Labour’s political opponents who have sought to contrast the lavish gifts with the Government’s decision to limit the winter fuel payment for all but the poorest pensioners.

Asked about the reasoning behind the decision, Culture Secretary Ms Nandy told BBC Breakfast: “For exactly the reason that you just said, that people are really struggling in this country, and we don’t want people to believe that we are living very different lives from them.

“Most people who go into politics, of all political parties, are ordinary people who want to make people’s lives better.

“It is important to us that people know that that is what we are as a Government and that we have their priorities absolutely up front and centre of ours. The country’s priorities are our priorities.”