The government controversially announced last autumn that it was planning to cut the payments for around 10million pensioners across England and Wales.
But last week Keir Starmer said at Prime Minister’s Questions that he hoped to restore winter fuel payments for more pensioners this year, thanks to improving economic prospects.
Bolton and District Pensioners Association secretary Bernie Gallagher said: “On the face of it, it seems to be good news, but the devil is always in the detail so we’ll have to see what the threshold is.
“But it shows that public pressure works!”
“So it’s not everything we wanted, but it’s a move in the right direction, especially since it looked like they weren’t going to move at all on it.”
The payments were originally meant to be one-off tax-free instalments of either £200 or £300 each year to help pensioners pay their energy bills in the colder months.
It has previously been paid to all pensioners in England and Wales, but government’s plans last autumn intended to restrict them only to pensioners who claim certain benefits.
This was expected cut the number of people receiving the benefit from around 11.4million people every year to just 1.5million, saving the government around £1.4billion a year.
But this sparked a widespread backlash across the country, concerned about the effect this could have on older people.
The Bolton and District Pensioners Association was at the forefront of the campaign against the cuts across the town over recent months.
At the time, Mrs Gallagher said the cut “could not have come at a worse time” for the estimated 39,000 pensioners who were set to be affected in Bolton.
Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner MP has now said that more details could be set to come to light over the coming weeks.
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Appearing on Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips on Sky News, she said: “I think that we’ve got the upcoming Spending Review, and I’m sure that the Chancellor will set it out when we’ve got the opportunity, at the first opportunity, she will set out what we’ll be able to do.”
Asked if this means details on the winter fuel payment will definitely be announced at the Spending Review, Ms Rayner added: “I don’t know, but I hope so.
She said: “I mean, the Prime Minister has announced it, so logically to me that indicates that the Prime Minister wants to do something in this area.
“And if the Prime Minister wants to do that, I’m sure the Chancellor is going to look at how we can achieve that.”
