Chancellor Rachel Reeves axed the winter fuel allowance for ten million older people. Speaking to BBC Breakfast, the chancellor said: 'When confronted with a £22bn black hole I had to act'.
Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer were branded 'hypocrites' last night over Labour 's raid on the winter fuel allowance.
It means 10million pensioners will be stripped of it, with people on incomes as low as £1,000 a month affected from this winter. Ms Reeves claimed the raid was needed to help fill a £22billion 'black hole' in the public finances left behind by the last Conservative government. And in November last year, her now deputy in the Treasury, Darren Jones, wrote to the-Chancellor Jeremy Hunt as as he prepared the autumn Budget, demanding a promise that no pensioner would be stripped of their winter fuel payment.
In a dramatic statement in the Commons yesterday, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said that winter fuel will be means-tested'I certainly thought that pensioner benefits might come under attack, but not as soon as now. If they get away with scrap the WFP then we fear the next thins in line will be free prescriptions in England and the bus pass.'
'Simply put, the benefit and computer systems are not good enough to do this , and the staff numbers needed would be massive.' Her announcement means 10million pensioners will be stripped of it, with people on incomes as low as £1,000 a month affected from this winter
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