Rachel Reeves has suggested pensioners can afford winter fuel payment cuts due to increases in the state pension and energy bills being lower than last year.

The Chancellor made the comments at Treasury questions in the House of Commons as she defended the decision to restrict the allowance to only those on pension credit.

Tory MP Wendy Morton said thousands of pensioners in her Aldridge-Brownhills constituency are “worried at the prospect” of losing their winter fuel payment “on which they rely”.

Ms Morton asked Ms Reeves: “Will she reconsider and reverse her decision?”

The Chancellor replied: “The increases in the basic state pension mean that constituents of hers are £900 better off than they were a year ago and of course energy bills are lower this year than they were last year.

“But it is important that we ensure that the 800,000 people who missed out on pension credit under the previous Conservative government now get access to that support, because those are the poorest pensioners and at the moment they are living in poverty because the previous government failed to sign them up to pension credit.”

Labour MP Rachael Maskell warned the average rent rise in York of 11.9 percent exceeded the state pension rise by £380 this year.

She 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.”

The York Central MP asked Ms Reeves how she will protect pensioners who are above the pension credit threshold in order to “prevent cold, ill health or worse this winter”.

Ms Reeves replied: “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 added the Government is working with local authorities to boost the take-up of pension credit.

The triple lock guarantees the state pension will rise by inflation, average wage growth or 2.5 percent.

It comes as the new Government is facing a backlash for stripping millions of pensioners of the payments, which were previously universal.

The policy is expected to reduce the number of older people in receipt of up to £300 by 10million, from 11.4million to 1.5million – saving about £1.4billion this year.