Warning to 100,000 state pensioners who've lost £300 Winter Fuel Payment this year

100,000 state pensioners could be forced into relative fuel poverty, government analysis has shown, as new Labour Party government ministers face being blasted over £300 Winter Fuel Payment cuts in the wake of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) shake up.

Internal government modelling shows the decision to remove the benefit from millions of pensioners will push about 50,000 more people into relative poverty next year, and another 50,000 by the end of the decade.

Liz Kendall said: “Means-testing winter fuel payments was not a decision this government wanted or expected to take. However, we were forced to take difficult decisions to balance the books in light of the £22bn black hole we inherited.”

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She added: “Given the dire state of the public finances, it’s right that we target support to those who need it most while we continue our work to fix the foundations and stabilise the economy.” Sir Keir Starmer, speaking to reporters at the G20 in Rio, said: “We’ve had a campaign to drive up pension credit, to get more pensioners on to pension credit, which obviously is not only a guarantee of the winter fuel allowance, but also gives the credit itself. So there’s an additional benefit there.”

He said: “Pensioners will be better off because we’ve stabilised the economy.” Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, said: “This government announcement confirms what we always knew: brutally rationing winter fuel payment, as ministers made the choice to do, will swell the numbers of pensioners already living below the poverty line – this year and into the future.”

Jan Shortt, general secretary of the National Pensioners Convention, said: “We find it completely unacceptable that an extra 50,000 to 100,00 older people will fall into poverty as a result of the decision to means test the winter fuel payment. The message to older people is that the government is happy to accept them as collateral damage caused by their policy decisions.”

Helen Whately, the shadow work and pensions secretary, said: “Finally the dam breaks and we get to see what Labour have known all along … Now the true impact of their cut has been revealed it’s time for Labour to reverse it.”