Tom Waters, an associate director at the IFS who analysed the options, said the simplest option would be to just undo last summer’s policy and “return to giving winter fuel payment to all pensioners”.
The Department for Work and Pensions could hand state pensioners in just THREE council tax bands the £300 Winter Fuel Payment. Tom Waters, an associate director at the IFS who analysed the options, said the simplest option would be to just undo last summer’s policy and “return to giving winter fuel payment to all pensioners”.
This would cost around £1.5 billion a year, increasing eligibility by about 11 million households. But Mr Waters, from the IFS, has also mooted over options for Labour Party government leader Sir Keir Starmer.
Calculations by Steve Webb, former pensions minister and partner at pension consultants LCP, have shown a little over half of pensioner households (6.3 million) live in a band A-C property.
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These tend to be lower income than those in higher banded properties, so allowing them to have winter fuel payments could help poorer pensioners. This solution has also been put forward by the financial commentator Martin Lewis.
But Saga warned: “But it’s not an ideal solution as there are plenty of low-income pensioners in more expensive houses, and vice versa.”
At prime minister’s questions on 21 May, Starmer told MPs: “I recognise that people are still feeling the pressure of the cost-of-living crisis, including pensioners, as the economy improves.
“We want to make sure people feel those improvements as their lives go forward. That is why we want to ensure that as we go forward, more pensioners are eligible for winter fuel payments.”
“As the economy improves, we want to take measures that will impact on people’s lives, and therefore we will look at the threshold, but that will have to be part of the fiscal event,” he added.
Former Liberal Democrats Pensions Minister Mr Webb said: “My feeling is that they are deluding themselves if they think a marginal increase in the cut-off point will win them any friends.
“The large majority of pensioners will still lose their winter fuel allowance, and people just the wrong side of the new cut-off will also feel aggrieved.”
