“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"
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has confirmed that some winter fuel payments will be reinstated in time for this winter, after Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he wanted to widen the threshold for winter fuel support.
The decision to means-test the previously universal payment, worth up to £300 to help cover energy costs, was one of the first announcements made by the chancellor after Labour’s landslide election victory last year. However, the policy received criticism from some charities, as well as voters about the levels of the means test.
Some charities claimed that the threshold was too low and that vulnerable people would miss out on support.
Although it remains unclear how the changes will be made and who will be eligible, pensions minister Torsten Bell has said that there will be no return to the previous system in which the payment was made to all 11.4 million pensioners.
At a speech in Rochdale, Reeves told reporters: “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.”
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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