Rachel Reeves braces for 'partial retreat' from £300 Winter Fuel Payments cut

Rachel Reeves faces an "early challenge" to her authority over £300 Winter Fuel payments it has been reported. The Chancellor, who took over the role upon the Labour Party winning the General Election back in July, has proposed cutting the payments from the Department for Work and Pensions ( DWP ) for THOUSANDS.

Andrew Rawnsley is the Chief Political Commentator of the Observer and said: "13 Labour MPs have put their names to a motion lambasting the government for introducing the change without any prior consultation or an impact assessment."

He added: "Many now think that we are heading towards some kind of U-turn, probably not immediately, but more likely when Ms Reeves unveils the budget at the end of October. The question then becomes how a retreat can be conducted without weakening the authority of the chancellor and the prime minister."

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Payments are worth between £100 and £300 – tax-free – with the basic rate paid automatically to anyone claiming the state pension. The higher sums are available to those who get other benefits, such as pension credit.

The payment is made annually each winter. In the winter of 2022-23 there were payments to 11.4 million pensioners in 8.4m households. Ms Reeves has announced that the payment will no longer be universal in England and Wales, and that only pensioners on means-tested benefits will qualify for it this winter.

This will take it away from about 10 million people. Rawnsley went on: "She won’t cancel the cut. My hunch is that she will eventually make a partial retreat which assuages the impact on the group about whom Labour MPs are most bothered: pensioners who don’t qualify or claim the credit and for whom this change will mean hardship.

"Then she and the prime minister will have to figure out how to make the U-turn elegant rather than embarrassing."