Winter fuel payment to be paid to 9,000,000 pensioners this year

The government’s decision sparked protests (Picture: Justin Tallis/AFP)

The vast majority of pensioners will receive the winter fuel payment this year after the government reversed course on its hugely unpopular decision to cut the benefit.

Last year, only around 1.5 million people in England and Wales received the payment, which is intended to help keep their homes warm in cold weather.

But Chancellor Rachel Reeves has now announced around nine million of the UK’s 13 million pensioners will get the benefit in their bank accounts.

The new threshold includes anyone with an income of under £35,000 a year.

Reeves argued targeting the payments, worth up to £300, was a ‘tough decision but a right decision’ at the time it was made, not long after Labour’s election victory last summer.

She said: ‘It is also right that we continue to means test this payment so that it is targeted and fair, rather than restoring eligibility to everyone including the wealthiest.

‘But we have now acted to expand the eligibility of the winter fuel payment so no pensioner on a lower income will miss out.

‘This will mean over three-quarters of pensioners receiving the payment in England and Wales later this winter.’

Those who do not want to receive the payment will also be able to opt out, the Treasury said.

Rachel Reeves’ announcement comes two days ahead of her major spending review (Picture: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire)

The Chancellor announced last July that the payment would only be available to those who also claim pension credit, as the government confronted what it described as a £22 billion ‘black hole’ in the public finances.

Her decision sparked an enormous backlash which is thought to have contributed to Labour’s poor performance in May’s local elections.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said: ‘This humiliating U-turn will come as scant comfort to the pensioners forced to choose between heating and eating last winter.

‘The Prime Minister should now apologise for his terrible judgment.’

Sir Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, 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.’

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