Chancellor Ms Reeves insisted it’s “completely proper” to means-test the profit, value as much as £300, with a view to tackle the “black gap” within the public funds.
Regardless of the opposition to the measure, housing minister Matthew Pennycook mentioned there aren’t any plans to cut back the coverage.
The profit was beforehand accessible to nearly everybody within the UK who was born earlier than 25 September 1957 to assist cowl their heating prices.
Nevertheless, from this winter solely these on Pension Credit score or means-tested advantages will get the Winter Gasoline Cost – these on the credit score will get £200 and £300 if somebody is over 80.
The Treasury mentioned the winter gas adjustments would see the variety of pensioners receiving the funds fall from 11.4 million to 1.5 million – so just below 10 million would miss out.
The plan cleared the Commons on Tuesday with only one Labour insurgent voting in opposition to it however dozens of MPs on the Authorities benches have been lacking in motion.
Ms Reeves advised broadcasters: “We confronted a scenario once I grew to become Chancellor that there was a £22 billion black gap within the public funds this 12 months.
“That meant we needed to make troublesome selections, powerful selections, to get a grip of these public funds in order that we may deliver stability again to the economic system.
“These weren’t selections that I wished to make. They weren’t selections that I anticipated to make, however within the circumstances that we confronted it was completely proper to be sure that our public funds have been on a firmer footing.
“As a result of solely by way of doing that do we’ve got the possibility to deliver stability again to our economic system and begin to develop the economic system after 14 years of stagnation.”
On Tuesday MPs voted 348 to 228 to reject a Conservative bid for the controversial coverage to be blocked.
Nevertheless, one Labour backbencher, Jon Trickett, opposed the Authorities in supporting the Tory movement, whereas 52, together with seven ministers, had no vote recorded.
A dozen of these didn’t have permission to overlook the vote and are thought to have abstained in protest on the coverage.
Fifteen of the Labour MPs who signed a movement which known as on the Authorities to delay implementing the lower have been amongst those that didn’t vote.
(1/5) At this time, the Authorities gained the vote to proceed plans to chop the Winter Gasoline Cost. There’s been numerous dialogue concerning the Authorities’s choice, however at coronary heart Age UK’s critique of their coverage is admittedly easy:
— Age UK Campaigns (@ageukcampaigns) September 10, 2024
Mr Pennycook mentioned there will probably be no U-turn on the coverage regardless of the opposition from campaigners and a few in his personal occasion.
The housing minister advised Sky Information that “all of us took that call with a particularly heavy coronary heart” however “we’re not going to water down that coverage”.
“We predict it’s the proper choice to make,” he mentioned.
Requested why the Authorities is awarding pay will increase to public sector employees, a key a part of the “black gap”, he mentioned: “What this Authorities has performed is implement the suggestions of the unbiased public sector pay assessment our bodies.
“Now, until the opposition in Parliament are saying they might have rejected these suggestions out of hand, allowed industrial motion to proceed, which was extraordinarily expensive to the UK economic system, they might have confronted that very same choice.”
Age UK’s charity director Caroline Abrahams mentioned: “The fact is that driving by way of this coverage because the Authorities is doing will make tens of millions of poor pensioners poorer nonetheless and we’re baffled as to why some ministers are asserting that that is the proper factor to do.”