From this winter, the fuel payments will be restricted to the poorest pensioners who are on pension credit. The…reports Asian Lite News
Labour was forced to cut winter fuel payments for millions of pensioners to prevent a run on the pound, a Cabinet minister has claimed.
Lucy Powell, the Leader of the Commons, said the markets would have lost confidence in the Government’s economic plan if it had not slashed the benefit.
Keir Starmer has faced widespread criticism from opponents, campaigners and some of his own MPs over the decision to means-test the payments, worth up to £300, in an attempt to fill a “black hole” in the public finances.
But Powell said there was “no alternative”, claiming the spending cut was needed to avoid an economic catastrophe. Speaking to Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips on Sky News, she said: “Finding savings in the current year that you are in is very difficult indeed.
“If we didn’t, we would have seen the markets losing confidence, potentially a run on the pound, the economy crashing – and the people who pay the heaviest price for that are not you and me, Trevor.
“The people who pay the heaviest price when the economy crashes are those the poorest in society… We’ve had to take some of those difficult decisions, as you say. And it’s not what we wanted to do.”
Powell made a similar argument in an interview with Times Radio, saying: “We faced this huge additional black hole for this current financial year, borrowing higher than anybody understood. If we hadn’t taken some of these tough decisions, we could have seen a run on the pound, interest rates going up and crashing the economy. It’s something we were left with no alternative but to do.”
Speaking on LBC Radio, she insisted Labour’s approach was not the same as George Osborne-style austerity because the former Tory chancellor had chosen “to dramatically reduce the size and the reach of the state, the welfare state”.
“What we’ve been left with is a huge legacy of overspend,” she said. “They’ve overspent on the asylum system to the tune of nearly £7 billion, they knew that the public sector pay deals that were sitting on their desk before the election would be honoured by them or any incoming government, and they hadn’t set aside any money. The reserves have gone to nothing, so we’re having to make up the current year that we’re in and the forthcoming years. That is very different from making a big choice to reduce the size of the state by billions and billions of pounds as that previous government did.”
From this winter, the fuel payments will be restricted to the poorest pensioners who are on pension credit. The Government has launched a campaign to encourage those eligible for the benefit to claim it.
But the Department for Work and Pensions has been accused of deliberately making pension credit “inaccessible” to retirees, with a 22-page form that includes questions such as: “Does your partner agree to your application?”
The Tories accused Labour of using a “Chicken Little strategy” to deceive the public. Laura Trott, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, said: “This simply shows how desperate the new Labour Government is to run from responsibility for the tax rises they always planned but hid from the public during the election.
“After handing billions in inflation-busting pay rises to their union paymasters, no one believes Labour’s Chicken Little strategy.
“They should stop trying to deceive the public with ridiculous fantasies and instead have the courage to let Parliament debate cuts to winter fuel payments for the sake of those pensioners who will lose out thanks to the decisions of this Government.”
ALSO READ: Blair tells Starmer to ignore criticism
