Keir Starmer confirms U-turn on winter fuel payment cuts

Keir Starmer has confirmed that his government will loosen the eligibility rules for winter fuel payments to pensioners after a backlash against the decision to means test the benefit.

Speaking at prime minister’s questions, Starmer said that more pensioners would be eligible for the payment.

The Guardian revealed this month that ministers were considering an increase to the £11,500 threshold over which pensioners are no longer eligible for the allowance.

Asked by the Labour MP Sarah Owen about help for pensioners, Starmer said his government had been forced to stabilise the economy with “tough decisions”, including the decision to remove the payment of up to £300 from 10 million pensioners within weeks of taking office.

“Because of those decisions, the economy is beginning to improve,” he said, citing growth figures and interest rate cuts, plus the hoped-for impact of recent trade arrangements with India, the US and EU.

“But I recognise that people are still feeling the pressure of the cost of living crisis, including pensioners, as the economy improves,” he said. “We want to make sure people feel those improvements as their lives go forward. That is why we want to ensure that as we go forward, more pensioners are eligible for winter fuel payments.”

This would happen, he added, as part of a fiscal event, understood to be the budget due in the autumn.

Asked by Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, whether he was U-turning on the winter fuel decision, Starmer replied: “I made clear in my earlier answer that as the economy improves, we want to take measures that will impact on people’s lives, and therefore we will look at the threshold, but that will have to be part of the fiscal event.”

Numerous ministers and Labour MPs have described the winter fuel decision as a policy disaster, one that has created huge ill-feeling and is routinely brought up by voters on the doorstep.

In the light of this, and poor results for Labour in the 1 May local elections across England, No 10 started to examine whether the threshold could be increased.