Reform has vowed to restore winter fuel payments for all pensions “straight away” by slashing foreign aid budgets. Zia Yusuf, the Reform UK Chairman, said a Government with Reform leader Nigel Farage in Number 10 would restore the benefit by cutting spending on overseas development, closing down asylum hotels, and ending “net zero” policies.
He was appearing on ITV’s Good Morning Britain where he was asked by host Ed Balls what Reform would do with winter fuel payments after Labour means-tested the benefit, meaning ten million pensioners are no longer eligible. Mr Yusuf said: “We’d restore it straight away.”
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He was then asked how he would pay for the measure. The Reform chairman said: “We are still spending £13.5 billion a year on foreign aid
“The asylum hotels alone are £3.5 billion.
“There’s the net zero costs, the direct cost to the taxpayer of the net zero policies are £11 billion. There’s plenty of money.”
Mr Balls, a former Labour politician, said: “You’ve answered that question very clearly.”
It follows the Government’s decision to means-test winter fuel payments of up to £300, so that they are now only available to pensioners receiving benefits such as Pension Credit.
The Government’s decision to means-test the payment so that only 1.5 million are eligible has been justified partly on the basis the money was going to wealthy pensioners who did not need it. However even people on modest incomes of £11,400 for a single person or £17,400 for couples will no longer be eligible in most cases.
The cut will save around £1.3 billion this year and £1.5 billion in future years, and Chancellor Rachel Reeves said it was essential to help plug a £22 billion “black hole” in the public finances.
The Government has admitted 50,000 to 100,000 additional pensioners will be pushed into poverty as a result of their policy
Some Labour MPs fear the policy contributed to Labour’s wipeout in local elections last week. Labour MP Rachael Maskell called on the Government to scrap winter fuel and welfare policies that she said are pushing voters away, telling BBC Breakfast the party needs to be driven by “a framework of values, which is about protecting people”.
