Plan to means-test benefit for pensioners criticised by opposition parties and some Labour backbenchers

Keir Starmer faces a test of his authority next week after promising a vote on the government’s plans to limit winter fuel allowance to the poorest pensioners.

MPs will get the chance to vote on secondary legislation on Tuesday that will introduce means-testing of the benefit after pressure from opposition parties and Labour backbenchers.

About half a dozen Labour MPs have already publicly criticised the plan and demanded a rethink amid fears that the move, worth up to £300 for each recipient, could leave thousands of pensioners struggling to pay their household bills this winter.

The scale of any potential mutiny remains unclear as voting against the government could result in losing the whip, after seven Labour MPs were suspended in July for six months after rebelling on the two-child benefit cap.

Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, has ignored calls to reverse her decision, instead focusing on getting more of the 800,000 people who qualify for pension credit but do not yet claim it to sign up.

At her first Treasury questions, Reeves confirmed pensioners receiving housing benefit would automatically get any pension credit they are due. She has already extended the household support fund for the poorest households.

She repeatedly told MPs that increases to the basic state pension meant that people would be substantially better off than a year ago, adding that the government was committed to further increases in the coming years.

“The basic state pension is worth £900 more than it was a year ago and will go up again in April next year because of the triple lock, which we have committed to for the duration of this parliament,” she said.

It comes as a video emerged of the Conservative leadership candidate Kemi Badenoch, who has heavily criticised the plans, previously calling for means-testing of the winter fuel allowance to be brought in.

“There is a lot of dead weight in how we run government,” said the shadow communities secretary in the clip from 2022. “I have people in my constituency telling me that they don’t need the winter fuel payments that we give them because they can afford it. Why do we not have a more sophisticated mechanism for means-testing?”

A spokesperson told the Telegraph, who first reported the story, that Badenoch was only talking about the richest pensioners.

Government sources insisted there were no plans to soften the decision, perhaps by moving the thresholds so more pensioners would receive the payment, either now or in the budget.

But Labour whips will be particularly concerned that new MPs, including Jessica Asato, Melanie Onn and Neil Duncan-Jordan, who has also tabled a Commons motion calling for a delay, have called for a rethink on the plans.

In the Commons, Rachael Maskell, the Labour MP for York Central, asked Reeves how she would protect pensioners who were above the pension credit threshold in order to “prevent cold, ill health or worse this winter”.

Maskell said: “With the loss of the cost-of-living payments and winter fuel payments, an increase in the energy price cap and cost of living, pensioners are frightened about how they’re going to keep warm this winter – as am I.”

Paula Barker, the Labour MP for Liverpool Wavertree, said that according to the charity Age UK about 1 million pensioners “just miss out” on the winter fuel payment, noting these included people within £50 of the poverty line.

Another Labour MP voicing concern was Sam Rushworth, who represents Bishop Auckland which includes England’s snowiest village where many pensioners receive the basic state pension but are in fuel poverty.

“They’re not entitled to pension credit. They live in cold, stone-built houses. What assurance can the chancellor give to those pensioners that this government will help to warm their homes and ensure that they do not struggle to heat their homes this winter?” he asked.

Dame Harriett Baldwin, a Conservative former minister, told the Commons that Reeves has made a “chilling political choice to balance the books of this country on the very frailest shoulders” by means-testing the winter fuel payment.

But a government source said: “When you’re facing this kind of crisis in the public finances, you have to take the tough choices and this is a difficult choice but it’s the right one given the scale of the inheritance.

“By keeping a grip of the public finances we can protect the triple lock not just for this year or next year but for the whole parliament. We will put more money into pensioners’ pockets and ensure we’re able to protect the most vulnerable.”

About five out of every six pensioners living below the poverty line could be at risk of being stripped of their winter fuel payments, according to a former pensions minister.

Steve Webb, now a partner at pension consultants LCP, said analysis suggests that about 1.6 million older people who are below what is commonly regarded as the poverty line do not receive pension credit.