There is no “tension” between plans to make savings from limiting winter fuel allowance to the poorest pensioners and more people taking up pension credit, Liz Kendall has signalled.
The winter fuel payment, worth up to £300, is being restricted to only those claiming pension credit from this winter, with the aim of saving the public purse £1.5 billion a year.
As more people apply for pension credit the savings will likely fall, but the Work and Pensions Secretary suggested she was comfortable with this as she appeared before a committee of MPs.
Ms Kendall said she wanted to see a 100% take-up of pension credit “regardless” of how this impacted on the Government’s attempts to plug a hole in the public finances.
“I would like every pensioner who is entitled to pension credit, up to £3,900, to get it, yes,” she told the Commons Work and Pensions Committee.
Pressed on whether this would be the case regardless of costs to the Government, she added: “Regardless, because they are entitled to it. That is what I want to see.
“Now, I am not claiming I am going to give you a date, this is the time by which it is hard, but I am determined to do everything I can.”
Asked if there was a tension in Government about this, Ms Kendall said: “For me there is no tension because I think it is a scandal that over 800,000 pensioners, the poorest pensioners, are losing up to £3,900 in pension credit that they should be entitled to.”
She also hinted at an interest in reforming the pension credit application process, telling MPs: “I also know that over many years we have not been able to solve this because people, it is difficult to increase take up. People don’t want to claim, they feel a stigma or ashamed of claiming. The pension credit form is very long.
“We have got more people doing this online now but we have got to solve that and I think it should not be beyond the wit of man or even womankind to actually solve this problem which is why ultimately we have got to make this a much more automatic entitlement.
“So for me there is no tension because I am going to move heaven and earth to do what I can to stop that because it is not right.”
Ministers have faced criticism for slashing access to the winter fuel payment, with opposition MPs urging them to rethink the move.
The Social Security Advisory Committee, a group of independent experts who advise the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), has meanwhile said the savings from limiting the allowance to only the poorest pensioners are unclear and could be outdone by a rise in those seeking pension credit.
The DWP began publishing data for weekly pension credit applications after Rachel Reeves said in July she would limit the winter fuel allowance.
The figures showed a sharp uptick in the number of claims following the Chancellor’s announcement, with numbers remaining over ten thousand each week until publication ceased in mid-September.
A further update to the statistics is expected in late November.
