Pensions expert Ros Altmann says Labour must urgently postpone axing controversial winter fuel payment cut

But trying to increase pension credit take up will overload DWP capability and claims will not be handled in time for November.

The drive to increase take up won’t work and will still leave millions out.

With hundreds of thousands of pensioners potentially eligible for Pension Credit but not yet claiming and perhaps up to two million more with incomes only a little above the threshold who might now try to apply and find themselves rejected, it is inevitable that the Government will be unable to process all new claims within a few weeks.

Even if those applying are accepted, the administrative processes take weeks or months so they won’t get their payments on time.

What will happen to those whose claims are rejected as being a bit above the threshold?

And those who are on low incomes but rejected as just a bit above the cut-off point, won’t get any help at all.

AgeUK estimate there are about two million of them. They also won’t get the help that those on Pension Credit receive with council tax, housing benefits, dental treatment, cold weather payments and so on. They will be even poorer than those on Pension Credit and therefore at greater risk.

Poorer pensioners usually have no way of suddenly finding extra money when they can’t or won’t go into debt.

Pensioners don’t have these sums stashed behind their sofa and they are not likely to be able to borrow money or use credit cards to pay their fuel bills. How are they supposed to manage?

Punishing all pensioners because some are well off is not the way to run social policy.

Just because some pensioners are well off is no justification for punishing the poorer ones as well.

Government should urgently announce a delay to allow time for proper assessment.

At the very least this decision should be delayed to give time for the government to make proper assessments of the potential hardship and work out mitigations carefully.

It is only fair to warn people and also to decide how to properly target help that is vital to so many properly.

Many pensioners spend most of their time at home and have already tried to cut spending.

Those pensioners I am most worried about are those who have already cut their spending to the bone, who live in energy inefficient homes, who spend most of their time at home, and have no way of replacing this lost money as energy bills rise.

All they can do is turn down or turn off the heating.

Those of us living comfortably in Britain forget about the reality of life for so many proud but frail older citizens.

These pensioners have grown up making do with what they have and never wanting to be in debt.

Those in their 80s and 90s have suddenly had £300 snatched away from them without warning. Obviously this is causing real distress.

The Government must put this decision on hold pending a proper impact assessment and mitigation measures.

If not, I fear that pensioners may take the Government line – ‘I can’t afford heating so I can’t turn it on’, putting them at risk of illness and increasing pressure on health and care services.

Many angry pensioners are feeling let down as £300 is a significant amount of money to them.

Of course, some can manage fine without, but millions can’t. This is not the way to fix the nation’s budget, yet there seems to be a determination to try to balance the nation’s books on the backs of pensioners.

There should be a considered review of all aspects of how this country supports its elderly citizens, before making this kind of draconian change. £300 does not sound like much to most of us, but for pensioners it is significant.

Taking away the Winter Fuel Payments, with no warning or time to prepare and no apparent consideration for the groups just above, or not claiming, means tested benefits, just 12 weeks before the money was expected, is a classic example of the wrong-headed thinking about older people. It actually represents a 3.3 per cent reduction in Government benefit to the over-80s on Basic State Pension.

Tarring poorer pensioners with a brush that only fits the better-off will create more pensioner poverty. It also risks those pensioners who cannot afford to heat their homes adequately (elderly people need to keep much warmer than the young) adopting the same mantra as was used to justify this decision in the first place.

The Treasury says ‘if we can’t afford it, we can’t pay it’. Pensioners may well be forced to say the same about turning on their heating ‘I can’t afford it, so I can’t do it’ and then their health will suffer. Many have no buffers to meet sudden unexpected costs, let alone to cope with a significant cut in the income they were expecting to be paid in a few weeks’ time, just as energy bills start rising again. This will increase strains on the NHS, add to pressure on GPs and local councils may need to help more people with care, costing taxpayers more.

The winter fuel decision should be reconsidered urgently.

Baroness Ros Altmann is a pensions expert and independent peer.