Winter fuel cuts were factor at elections, says minister

Restricting winter fuel payments dented Labour’s support at last week’s local elections, the health secretary has acknowledged.

Wes Streeting told the BBC many voters “aren’t happy” with the decision, adding it had “come up on the doorstep” during campaigning.

But he insisted the move would help the government invest in public services despite “multiple crises that we’ve inherited”.

Streeting said the policy was not being formally reviewed, after the Guardian reported ministers were considering partially reversing the cuts later this year.

However, he said Labour was “reflecting on what the voters told us” at last week’s local elections, when the party lost around two-thirds of the seats it was defending.

No 10 sources say conversations have taken place about how to address the scale of public concern about the issue.

The winter fuel payment is a lump-sum amount of £200 a year for pensioners under-80, increasing to £300 for over-80s, paid in November or December.

Last year, the government decided to restrict the payments to those who qualify for pension credit and other income-related benefits, in a bid to save £1.4bn.

The move, which did not feature in Labour’s election manifesto, means around 9 million pensioners will no longer qualify for the top-up.

It has been seen as a key issue at last week’s elections, at which Labour lost 187 council seats and control of the only council it was defending.

Streeting told the BBC: “I’m not going to insult your viewers by pretending that winter fuel didn’t come up on the doorstep, of course it did”.

“I know that people aren’t happy about the winter fuel allowance in lots of cases,” he added.

“We did protect it for the poorest pensioners, but there are a lot of people saying they disagree with it regardless”.

However, he also defended the move as part of a wider package of changes, that would provide the “means of raising the investment” in public services.

“Unfortunately when you look across the board at the breadth and depth of the multiple crises that we’ve inherited, in order to deliver the change that people voted for we have had to do heavy lifting at the Budget,” he added.

The winter fuel payment was introduced in 1997 by New Labour as a universal payment for all pensioners.

It was billed as a way to guarantee they would be able to pay for increased heating costs over the winter – although in practice it is a pension top-up, which recipients can spend on whatever they want.

From 2010 onwards, the state pension gained additional protection under the “triple lock” policy – under which pensions go up each year by the highest of inflation, average earnings or 2.5%.

Last year the state pension went up by 8.5%, an annual rise of £691.60 for those on the full basic state pension or £902.20 for those on the full new state pension.

This year state pensions are going up by 4.1% – a rise of £363 a year for those on the basic pension or £472 for those on the new pension.