DWP Winter Fuel Payment cut update after review reports

The benefit was previously available to almost everyone in the UK born before September 25, 1957, to help cover their heating costs.

However, last year, changes meant that only those on Pension Credit or means-tested benefits will get the Winter Fuel Payment.

Ahead of the move, the Treasury said the changes would see the number of pensioners receiving the payments fall from 11.4 million to 1.5 million – so just under 10 million would miss out.

The cuts to the Winter Fuel Payment were a popular discussion topic during the recent local elections, which saw Reform, who have pledged to reinstate the payment to its previous levels, pick up more than 600 seats and take control of 10 local authorities in Thursday’s local elections.

However, speaking on Good Morning Britain this morning, Political Correspondent Louisa James said Downing Street had told her “very clearly” there would be no review of the Winter Fuel Payment cuts.

She said: “It is no secret that there are a lot of Labour MPS who are unhappy about this, but it does feel as though that anxiety has grown since the local election results.

“Downing Street has told me very clearly this morning that there is no review taking place into whether those winter fuel payments should be reinstated to some of the poorest pensioners.

“It does look as though the Government and Keir Starmer are sticking to the position they have held all along.”

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While speaking on Times Radio this morning, Health Secretary Wes Streeting defended the “unpopular” decisions made by the Government on means-testing winter fuel payments and hiking employers’ national insurance contributions (Nics).

He said: “The reason why we chose to target winter fuel allowance at the poorest pensioners and remove it for others and the reason why we took the decision on employers’ Nics and on tax breaks for private schools and on non-doms is because we needed to rescue our public services from the depths of the crises they are in.”

Mr Streeting added: “Sometimes you do, in government, have to make unpopular decisions in pursuit of the outcomes you want to see.

“And we’ve made unpopular decisions, knowing they might be unpopular, because we genuinely believe they were the right decisions for the country.”