Winter fuel payment All pensioners will not be restored, a minister has called millions of people across the country a setback.
It came Rahel reeves to be confirmed U-turn expected on controversial cuts There will be a place for this winter, but said that the government will not determine the details of how it will pay till the budget of the autumn.
Sir ker stormer Last month announced its intentions to provide access to winter fuel payment to more people, Labor first after a few months of universal payment.
But confusion is increasing on what these changes will be seen, who will affect and when will they be introduced.
On Wednesday, Pension Minister Torson Bell confirmed that there was no possibility of returning to a universal winter fuel payment for all.
Talking to the work and pension committee, Mr. Bell said: “There is no possibility of a universal winter fuel payment on your question directly, the principle is not, I think most people, 95 percent people, agree, it is not a good idea that we have a system that we have a few pound pounds, and so we are not being released with it.
“But we must be looking to make more pensioners eligible.”
It was initially expected that a change in review of the next week’s expenditure would be unveiled, but the Chancellor has now said that the government will determine “how everything will be paid in the budget in the autumn”.
In report Mentor And Many times It is said that the Treasury is considering restoring payment for all pensioners, before the next financial year requires better-off contenders to pay back through tax bills.
The threshold may be based on the average level of real domestic disposable income, report Many times,
Speaking in Manchester on Wednesday, Ms. Reeves said: “I had to make decisions last year to restore the sound public finance, and included many difficult decisions around welfare, taxation and public spending, including the decision to pay the mines-test winter fuel fuel, so that it got only the poorest pensioners, pension credits.
“But we have now placed our public finance on a strong rung. The economy is in a better size, but we have also heard the concerns that people had about the level of means-testing.
“So we are making changes in it. They will be in place so that pensioners will be paid this coming winter, and we will announce the details of that level, as we can do as soon as we can.”
Labor MP Rachel Maskel criticized the decision not to restore the winter fuel payment to all, warning that “the meaning-defense benefits fail to reach the people”.
He told Independent: “What I challenge to the minister is: How will they distribute winter fuel payment to all weaker people to get the support they need?”
“Over 3 or 4 million people who are eligible did not claim pension credits, entrances for winter fuel payments, in the previous winter, because one of the reasons why failure to reach people means-one point The government should have thrown everything in an attempt to claim people.
“When 1 million more people are in fuel poverty, it shows that not only the eligibility needs to be changed, but also the process that will reach the payment, or people will continue to go to the cold.
“This is why universality works with the taxation system, then brings back money from people with high pension or assets.”
Winter fuel payment Payments of £ 300 to help with energy costs in cold months. In July, the Chancellor announced that pensioners will not get pension credit or other resource-tested benefits, no longer the benefit will be received.
As a result, only 1.5 million pensioners received payments in 2024-25 in winter -10.8 million pensioners who received it a year ago.
The cut was deeply unpopular because they were seen as being unprotected for weak people being harmful, and was criticized for leaving thousands of poor pension that were missing from payment.
In November, it was discovered that the government’s own figures indicated that it would happen Force 100,000 pensioners in poverty in 2026.
The policy was partially convicted for the poor performance of labor in local elections-who lost two-thirds of the council seats in 2021 and also already improving the UK to improve the Labor-Aegend Runcorn and Helsbi parliamentary seats to improve the UK.
Cuts – combined with the party’s decision to keep £ 5BN welfare cuts and two child profit cap – has created a growing concern among the labor MPs towards the government.