Martin Lewis gives verdict on Starmer’s winter fuel payment U-turn with 2 big problems.uk
Martin Lewis has reacted to Sir Keir Starmer’s announcement that the winter fuel payment will be changed following backlash to the state pensioner benefit cut.
Martin Lewis has handed Sir Keir Starmer two key problems that need to be fixed with the Winter Fuel Payment system after the Prime Minister announced a U-turn on the scale of the benefit’s means testing.
Last year, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced an unpopular change to the £200 to £300 payment for state pensioners, which changed eligibility for the payment from being universal to only being for those who claim Pension Credit. At the time of the policy’s announcement, Lewis backed means testing the benefit, but criticised the decision to base it on Pension Credit because hundreds of thousands of people who should be able to get the benefit don’t end up getting it. Today, Sir Keir announced in parliament that the Government will change the means testing system to raise the threshold and give the Winter Fuel Payment to more pensioners, beyond the current £11,800 Pension Credit limit.
Martin Lewis has reacted to the Winter Fuel Payment u-turn (Image: ITVX)
Martin Lewis, reacting to the news, posted on X: “Very pleased to just hear the Prime Minister has just said he wants more state pensioners to get Winter Fuel Payments (WFP) and they will work out what they’re doing in time for the budget.”
But he reiterated the two key points he says the government needs to fix, adding: “As I’ve said since day one, there are two main problems with the way the means testing of WFP was done
“1. The threshold is too low. Most need earn under £11,800/yr to get it. That’s an extremely low income when typical energy bills are £1,800/yr
“2. Using Pension Credit, a benefit that has been known to be critically underclaimed for years, as the mechanism to prove eligibility, is flawed. It leads to, on govts own figures, 700,000 of the poorest and most vulnerable pensioners, people who have total income below £11,800/yr missing out.
“The issue that complicates WFP means testing is it’s a household not individual payment. I have suggested to the Chancellor in the past that an imperfect but speedily workable solution would be to give WFP to all pensioners who are on pension credit or in homes that are council tax bands A to C.
“Hopefully they now have time to fix this frankly unpopular mess, that came from a rush job, and come up with something that works effectively for more people for the coming winter.”
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said Sir Keir wanted the changes to be introduced “as quickly as possible”.
The changes will only be set out at a “fiscal event” – with Rachel Reeves’ Autumn Budget the first such opportunity unless the Government breaks with its schedule.
Asked if the changes would be in place this coming winter, the spokesman said: “We obviously want to deliver this as quickly as possible, but the Prime Minister was very clear in the House that this has to be done in an affordable way, in a funded way, and that’s why those decisions will be taken at a future fiscal event.”
