Rishi Sunak has accused Sir Keir Starmer of taking the winter fuel payment away from pensioners to give money to “highly paid train drivers”.
The opposition Conservative leader used the first Prime Minister’s Questions after the summer recess to criticise the government’s decision to take winter fuel payments away from pensioners not on pension credits while approving public sector pay rises.
Mr Sunak said: “Government is about making choices and the new prime minister has made a choice.
“He has chosen to take the winter fuel allowance away from low income pensioners and give that money to certain unionised workforces and inflation-busting pay rises.
“So can I just ask the prime minister why did he choose train drivers over Britain’s vulnerable pensioners?”
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Train drivers in London earn an average of just under £60,000 a year and will now get a 5% rise backdated for 2022 to 2023, a 4.75% rise for 2023 to 2024 and a 4.5% increase for 2024 to 2025 – a total of 14.25% over three years.
The prime minister retaliated by saying the government was elected “to clear up the mess left by the party opposite”, and said “it’s no good them complaining” when the government had found a “£22bn black hole”.
“So we’ve had to take tough decisions to stabilise the policy and repair the damage, including targeting winter fuel payments whilst protecting pensioners,” he said.
Read more:
Winter fuel payment changes – are you still eligible?
Black hole ‘likely larger than £22bn’
Sir Keir said there are 800,000 pensioners eligible for pension credit who are not claiming it as he urged them to do so.
He also said those on state pensions are set to get more than £1,000 over the next five years (about £200 a year) due to the triple lock on pensions, which the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition introduced.
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It ensures pensions increase each April by whatever number is highest out of inflation, the average UK wage increase, or 2.5%.
Most pensioners get £200 a year in winter fuel payments, which was introduced in 1997 by Tony Blair’s Labour government.
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Mr Sunak challenged the prime minister on why he decided to remove the winter fuel allowance from pensioners living on £13,000, just above the threshold to claim pension credit, while “giving more money to highly paid train drivers”.
“I remind him that we inherited absolute chaos from the party opposite,” Sir Keir said.
“We lost an average of three million working days a year to strikes under his watch.
“But you cannot fix the economy if the trains don’t work and you can’t fix the economy if the NHS isn’t working.”
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Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey also questioned the prime minister on winter fuel payments, saying a man called Norman had to go back to work this year to pay for caring costs for his wife so their income is now “just a few hundred pounds above the limit for pension credit”.
Sir Keir answered: “We have taken a difficult decision, and I’m not pretending it’s not a difficult decision.
“Of course, it’s a difficult decision because we have to stabilise the economy. We have to stabilise the economy.”
He added: “You can’t grow your economy. you can’t fix your economy unless you stabilise it first.”
