Winter fuel payment changes to be announced 'at a fiscal event', PM says
The Prime Minister has said an improving economic picture has enabled his Government to ‘look again’ at winter fuel payments, after a partial U-turn was announced earlier this week.
Speaking to the Yorkshire Post, Sir Keir Starmer declined to offer more details about what the expansion of the scheme could look like, how many more people could receive the benefit, or how it would be paid for.
He also said more details would be set out ‘at a fiscal event’ - likely to be the Comprehensive Spending Review in June, but potentially an Autumn budget in late October.
The decision to means test the payment was one of the first announcements by Chancellor Rachel Reeves after Labour’s landslide election victory last year, and has been widely blamed for the party’s collapse in support.
For months, ministers have been sent out to brief that keeping the previous system whereby payments of up to £300 were made annually to all pensioners, was unaffordable, due to the challenging economic conditions inherited from the last Government.
But disquiet about the policy had been growing among the backbenches, with several Labour MPs and councillors privately saying that the handling of the announcement had caused significant issues for them on the doorsteps.
It comes as new polling found one third of Britons think winter fuel payments should be restored to all pensioners.
A YouGov poll carried out on Thursday showed 44 per cent said the benefit should still be means tested but offered to more pensioners than it was currently, while some 7 per cent wanted the policy kept as it was now.
And 33 per cent backed reverting to the previous system where it was universal.
As well as meeting regional leaders yesterday, Sir Keir also met with the leaders of Wales and Scotland, where the issue of winter fuel payments was addressed.
When asked for more details on what the changes would look like, Sir Keir said: “the background to this is that because of the decisions that we’ve taken, tough decisions but the right decisions, we are now seeing evidence of the economy turning around.
“So we've had very good growth figures for the first quarter of this year, interest rates have now gone down four times and for people on a mortgage that’s beginning to make a material difference month or month.
“And we've been able to strike these three trade deals, which is really good for the economy.
“And that is why, against that backdrop, I want to look again at eligibility for winter fuel, and make sure more pensioners are eligible.,
“What I need to do now is to be clear about where the money will come from, and that's why we'll look to do this in a fiscal event.
“But the direction of travel, I think, is very clear.”
Opposition parties have been quick to try to gain political capital from the U-turn.
Earlier this week, the LEader of the Opposition Kemi Badenoch wrote to the Prime Minister demanding to know whether the reversal would “come into effect in time for payments to be made for this winter”, given a budget could be “six months away”.
In her letter, she warned: “Pensioners are typically living on fixed incomes. They need to be able to plan ahead. We have heard from many who have suffered through the past winter as a result of your Government’s callous decision to remove their winter fuel payments. Some have had to choose between heating and eating.”
The Prime Minister was also asked about a proposed tourist tax which is receiving growing support among political figures in York, including from the Labour-run council and York Central’s Labour MP Rachel Maskell.
With ministers seemingly keen to continue the devolution agenda and move more powers from Whitehall to the regions, the Prime Minister was asked whether a tourist tax was an example of the type of responsibilities he would like to see mayors having.
He said: “I was interested that York Council has raised this issue.
“I mean, there are currently no plans to introduce a tourist tax, but local authorities can already choose to introduce a levy on overnight stays through the accommodation business improvement district model - which is a bit of a mouthful - but what that allows is a levy on overnight stays.
“So I'm conscious that York wants to look at this.
“No plans for tax across the country, but these levies can be introduced by local authorities.”