Downing Street is looking at ways to get more vulnerable pensioners onto pension credit so they can still claim winter fuel payments, Keir Starmer has indicated.
And after days of gloomy briefings and downbeat speeches on the state of Britain, the PM gave a glimmer of hope – promising things would be better before the end of the Parliament in five years time.
Speaking during his visit to Germany, the PM said: “We do want to get as many, pensioners who are eligible onto Pension Credit as possible. And it’s really important that we do that.
“And we’re looking at the best way of increasing those numbers to make sure that those, that are vulnerable, get the protection are therefore excluded and shielded from, the decision, as we go forward.”
He added: “Let me inject some hope, because the whole point of this exercise is to make sure we can bring about the change that we need.
“If you don’t clear out the rot and don’t do it properly, you’ve got nothing to build on.
“Having to say that things are going to get worse before they get better is not what any Prime Minister wants to say, but they will get better.
“And whether they’re good analogies or not, you will judge in due course….but if you’re redecorating a house and you want it to look much nicer, it’s usually better if you strip it down and get rid of the damp and the cracks first, rather than painting it in five minutes thinking it looks much better and by Christmas the cracks on the damp come back.
He added: “This is actually a project of hope, but it’s got to start with the hard yards of doing the difficult stuff, of clearing out the rot first.”