Sir Keir Starmer has announced plans to ease cuts to winter fuel payments, in a U-turn following mounting political pressure in recent weeks.

More than nine million pensioners lost out on the payments, worth up to £300, when eligibility for the pension top-up was tightened last year.

Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions, Sir Keir said ministers would change the threshold to allow “more pensioners” to qualify again.

But it remains unclear how many will regain their entitlement for the payments, or when the changes will take effect.

Sir Keir said the policy would be changed at the autumm Budget, adding ministers would only “make decisions we can afford”.

The winter fuel payment is a lump-sum amount of £200 a year for pensioners under 80, increasing to £300 for over-80s, paid in November or December.

Around nine million pensioners lost out on the payments last year after the government restricted them to those who qualify for and other income-related benefits, to save an estimated £1.4bn.

The move, announced shortly after Labour took office last July, has led to fierce criticism from unions and pensioner charities.

But pressure to change course has grown in recent weeks, with some Labour MPs and councillors blaming the policy for the party’s losses at last month’s local elections in parts of England.

Grumbling from MPs generally on the Labour left spread into the party more widely, and even MPs who defended the policy said it was the most frequently raised issue by members of the public.

Designing a new eligiblity threshold will now present political and practical headaches for ministers ahead of the Budget in the autumn.

Speaking to reporters, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch welcomed the “inevitable” U-turn, branding last year’s changes a “cruel decision”.

She called on ministers to set out “early” details of their new approach, adding that waiting for autumn’s Budget would be “too late” to ensure their changes are in place for next winter.

She did not specify where she wanted the new threshold to be set, but added she did not think that “millionaires” should qualify again.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey welcomed the “longest U-turn” from the government, and called for the cuts to be reserved “in full”.

Age UK, one of the charities opposing the cuts, welcomed the change in approach but said any new system should ensure pensioners on “low and modest incomes” would be able to keep the payments.

Asked by reporters when the changes would take effect, the prime minister’s spokesman declined to guarantee it would be in place this coming winter, but added: “We obviously want to deliver this as quickly as possible.

“We will only make decisions when we can say where the money is coming from, how we’re going to pay for it and that it’s affordable,” he added.

The winter fuel payment was introduced in 1997 by New Labour as a universal payment for all pensioners.

It was billed as a way to guarantee they would be able to pay for increased heating costs over the winter – although in practice it is a pension top-up, which recipients can spend on whatever they want.

From 2010 onwards, the state pension gained additional protection under the “triple lock” policy – under which pensions go up each year by the highest of inflation, average earnings or 2.5%.

This year state pensions went up by 4.1% – a rise of £363 a year for those on the basic pension or £472 for those on the new pension.

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Source: www.bbc.com