6th May 2025 11:27
(Alliance News) - A senior Labour Party figure in the UK called for a rethink in the decision to means-test the winter fuel allowance as ministers acknowledged stripping the payments from millions of pensioners contributed to Labour's hammering at the ballot box.
Welsh First Minister Eluned Morgan said the decision to axe the universal benefit was "something that comes up time and again" as she called for a U-turn.
Cabinet minister Wes Streeting acknowledged people's anger at the policy but said there was no formal review taking place, amid speculation that changes were being considered to restore the payments to some who lost the handouts worth up to GBP300.
Labour lost the previously safe Runcorn & Helsby constituency in a by-election and almost 200 councillors as Nigel Farage's Reform UK made sweeping gains in last week's vote.
Morgan also fears Reform making significant gains in Wales at next year's Senedd election.
In a speech in Cardiff she called on UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer to rethink the means-testing of winter fuel payments.
She said there were "two Labour governments working together" in Cardiff Bay and Westminster but she insisted she would challenge Starmer where they disagreed.
She said: "To be honest, though, it hasn't all been popular.
"The cut in winter fuel allowance is something that comes up time and again, and I hope the UK government will rethink this policy."
She also said the UK government's welfare reform proposals "are causing serious concern here, where we have a higher number of people dependent on disability benefits than elsewhere".
The First Minister added: "We know that splits and spats make for easy news, but this isn't drama. This is honesty, this is responsibility. This is what leadership looks like."
The Guardian reported that, while a full restoration of the universal winter fuel payment was unlikely, No 10 sources said the government was considering whether to increase the GBP11,500 threshold over which pensioners are no longer eligible for the allowance.
Streeting told Radio 4's Today: "There isn't a formal review or anything like that going on. I do know that.
"But look, we are reflecting on what the voters told us last Thursday at the ballot box."
He said "at this stage, ahead of a spending review or budget where these sorts of decisions are normally taken, I wouldn't be close to those sorts of discussions".
But he told BBC Breakfast: "I know that people aren't happy about winter fuel allowance, in lots of cases. We did protect it for the poorest pensioners but there are lots of people saying they disagree with it regardless."
The decision last July to restrict the winter fuel payment to the poorest pensioners was intended to save around GBP1.5 billion a year, with more than nine million people who would have previously been eligible losing out.
Streeting defended the decision and other "unpopular" measures such as the hike in employers' national insurance contributions, arguing they were necessary to raise cash to address the various "crises" across public services including the NHS and prisons.
In response to the electoral backlash, he told LBC: "We have to take that on the chin, and we are. In Government, we're genuinely impatient for change. We are going hard at the challenges that the public has set for us.
"And we're under no illusion – and I think the voters have sent us a fundamental message 'we voted for change with Labour last year, if you don't deliver change, if we're not feeling it, we'll vote for change elsewhere'.
"So we've got that message loud and clear. We take the results on the chin.
"We're back in Parliament today, picking ourselves up, dusting ourselves down, and with things like the GP announcement today showing the country we've got the message, when the prime minister said 'go further and faster', we're on the case."
Shadow work & pensions secretary Helen Whately said: "Looks like Labour are having a rethink about their winter fuel payment cut.
"Shame they didn't listen to us before they made millions of pensioners struggle through the winter. But at least there's time to fix it before next winter."
Liberal Democrat Treasury spokeswoman Daisy Cooper said: "The government's cuts to winter fuel payments have caused untold misery, with countless pensioners forced to choose between heating and eating.
"It beggars belief that the government is only now waking up to the public fury and damage they have caused."
By David Hughes, PA Political Editor and George Thompson, PA Wales Correspondent
Press Association: News
source: PA
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