Political reporter
Labour MPs have used the government’s U-turn on winter fuel payments to renew their calls for planned benefit cuts to be reversed.
Backbenchers broadly welcomed the announcement pensioners in England and Wales with an annual income of £35,000 or less would now be eligible for up to £300 to help with energy bills this winter.
They thanked the government for listening to their concerns, arguing means testing was fair but that the threshold for the payment, which was previously for all pensioners, was set too low last year.
However, several urged ministers to also think again on planned cuts to disability payments, while others called for the two-child benefit cap to be scrapped.
Under planned changes to the benefits system it would be harder for people with less severe conditions to claim personal independence payments (Pips), while the government is promising more support to help people get into work.
The two-child benefit cap policy prevents most families from claiming means-tested benefits for any third or additional children born after April 2017, which critics say has pushed people into poverty.
Ministers are considering lifting the cap, with a decision expected in the autumn, when a child poverty strategy is published.
Pressure from Labour backbenchers over both issues – as well as on winter fuel payments – has been growing since the party’s poor performance at local election’s in May.
The winter fuel payment was previously paid to all pensioners but last year the government announced only those receiving pension credit or another means-tested benefit would be eligible in England and Wales.
The original cut last year was estimated to save £1.7bn, with the government arguing it was necessary because of the state of the public finances.
But the move, which meant more than 10 million pensioners did not receive the payment in 2024, was criticised by charities, unions, opposition parties and many Labour MPs.
Following mounting pressure, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced a U-turn last month, with the details of who will get the payment this winter set out on Monday.
The chancellor said she would detail how the £1.25bn policy would be paid for in the autumn Budget.
Imran Hussain was among the Labour MPs to call for the planned benefit cuts to be scrapped in response to a government statement in the Commons on changes to winter fuel payments.
“It is clear the government has listened, so I ask them to listen again to the growing calls in this chamber and scrap their planned, devastating cuts to disability support,” the MP for Bradford East said.
Fellow Labour MPs Nadia Whittome and Richard Burgon also welcomed the winter fuel U-turn but urged the government to listen to backbench concerns over benefit cuts.
In response, Torsten Bell, who is both a Treasury minister and pensions minister, told MPs there needed to be “a better system focusing on supporting those who can work into work”.
He added that the status quo – where 1,000 people a day are going onto Pips – was not “a position that anybody should support”.
Labour MP Rachael Maskell, who has been a leading campaigner for restoring winter fuel payments, welcomed the government’s change in policy, saying it was “long overdue”.
She told BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme the £35,000 salary threshold for the payment was a “sensible measure”.
However, Maskell called on the government to consider a larger payment following increases in energy prices over the past year.
The MP for York Central also urged a rethink on planned benefit cuts, adding: “You can’t rob disabled people in order to pay older people, that doesn’t make sense.”
Meanwhile, she was among several MPs to reiterate their calls for the government to scrap the two-child benefit cap.
In the Commons Rebecca Long Bailey, Labour MP for Salford, also asked for reassurances minsters “are doing all they can to outline plans to lift the two-child cap on universal credit as soon as possible” to bring children out of poverty.
In response Bell said “all levers to reduce child poverty are on the table”.
The minister added: “She’s absolutely right to raise this issue, it is one of the core purposes of this government.
“We cannot carry on with a situation where large families, huge percentages of them, are in poverty.”
The Conservatives have called for the government to apologise to pensioners who lost out on winter fuel payments last year.
Shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately described the U-turn as “the most humiliating climbdown a government has ever faced in its first year in office”.
She told the Commons “this rushed reversal raises as many questions as it answers”, arguing the move was “totally unfunded” and could lead to tax rises.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: “Finally the chancellor has listened to the Liberal Democrats and the tireless campaigners in realising how disastrous this policy was, but the misery it has caused cannot be overstated.
“Countless pensioners were forced to choose between heating and eating all whilst the government buried its head in the sand for months on end, ignoring those who were really suffering.”
