The Government did not carry out an assessment showing the impact of cutting winter fuel payments for millions of pensioners, Sir Keir Starmer has confirmed.
The Prime Minister said he has not been shown private analysis of the possible consequences of his and Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ decision to scale back the payment for pensioners.
Ms Reeves insisted it is right to means-test the benefit worth £300, in order to address the £22million “black hole” in public finances.
The plan has sparked a backlash as it is to see the number of recipients of the payment reduced from 10.8 million last winter to an estimated 1.5 million this year, according to analysis by the House of Commons Library.
Only people on pension credit or certain other benefits will receive the payments in England and Wales.
The Government has come under pressure from the Tories to publish an impact assessment of the plan, which Conservative leader Rishi Sunak raised at Prime Minister’s Question Time on Wednesday.
He had accused the Prime Minister of “hiding” the analysis.
Pressed on whether an impact assessment would be published, Sir Keir has told reporters travelling with him to Washington DC: “There isn’t a report on my desk which somehow we’re not showing, that I’m not showing, as simple as that.”
The Government is not legally required to produce one, he added.
A spokeswoman from Downing Street said some statistical work may have been done. However, there was nothing on what the impact may have been on vulnerable pensioners, how many people were affected by the change might have been vulnerable or how many had health difficulties.
“There are clear rules on this that we followed carefully and, for policy changes implemented through secondary legislation, like the change to winter fuel payment eligibility, departments are required to make regulatory impact assessments if the cost of the legislation exceeds £10 million and so an assessment was therefore not required for the change to winter fuel eligibility.”
Asked whether an assessment should have been done to work out whether elderly people might die as a result of the change, the spokeswoman said: “The Government will be ensuring that those who are most vulnerable and should be receiving support are receiving it, and that’s why there is a huge effort to try and convert people onto pension credit.
“And also, we want people to be applying for the wider support, which is also there for the most vulnerable.
“Our approach is to ensure that those most vulnerable are receiving targeted support, and we’ve had to take that tough decision to rebalance the books, given the state of the public finances.”
