Labour is to plough hundreds of millions of pounds into extending help for families this winter as it tries to fend of criticism over cuts to payments for pensioners.
Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall today announced she is extending the Household Support Fund, which allows councils to help people with cost-of-living struggles, at a cost of £421million.
It came as ministers feel pressure over the post-election decision to make the winter fuel allowance for over-65s means-tested.
They are set to block efforts by the Tories and Liberal Democrats for a parliamentary vote this week on Chancellor Rachel Reeves‘ plan to scale back the payments which are worth up to £300.
Announcing the extension of the HSF today Ms Kendall said it would run in England until the end of March, which money also paid out to authorities in Scotland and Wales.
‘This funding will work to help those in need. Pensioners and others struggling with the cost of living over the colder months should contact their local council to see what support may be available to them,’ she said in a written statement to MPs.
Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall today announced she is extending the Household Support Fund, which allows councils to help people with cost-of-living struggles, at a cost of £421million.
It came as ministers feel pressure over the post-election decision to make the winter fuel allowance for over-65s means-tested.
Yesterday, Ms Reeves defended the scaling back of the winter fuel payments as the ‘right choice’, saying that savings were needed to fill a financial ‘black hole’ left by the Tories. ‘I know these are tough choices, especially on winter fuel,’ she wrote in The Observer. ‘They were not the choices I wanted to make or expected to make but they were the right choices to put our country on a firmer footing.’
Commons Leader Lucy Powell went further, claiming that Britain could have suffered a run on the pound without the measure, which is expected to save the taxpayer about £1.5billion a year.
But critics pointed out that Ms Reeves unveiled additional spending of about £10billion to fund inflation-busting pay rises for public sector workers on the same day as she announced that the winter fuel allowance would be means-tested.
Opposition MPs argue the scale of the cuts mean the plan should have been subject to a parliamentary debate and vote.
However, the vote will require ministers to set aside time in Parliament and a government source said: ‘We are not going to do that.’
The source said opposition parties could use one of their occasional allotted days in Parliament to raise the issue in the future if they wanted to pursue it.
But shadow Treasury minister Laura Trott said: ‘This simply shows how desperate the Labour government is to run from responsibility for the tax rises they always planned but hid from the public during the election.
‘After handing billions in inflation-busting pay rises to their union paymasters, no one believes Labour’s ‘Chicken Little’ strategy.
They should stop trying to deceive the public with ridiculous fantasies and instead have the courage to let Parliament debate cuts to Winter Fuel Payments for the sake of those pensioners who will lose out thanks to the decisions of this Government.’
The row rumbled on as Labour’s leader Sir Keir Starmer stayed at Balmoral in Scotland as a guest of King Charles in his first visit there as Prime Minister.