The lack of a proper plan to help poorer households with energy bills this winter risks leaving hundreds of thousands of pensioners in the cold, the government has been warned.
Ministers have been in talks with energy suppliers since August to discuss extra support for those on lower incomes, including pensioners who will lose their winter fuel allowance.
But in her Budget on Wednesday Rachel Reeves failed to include any new policy to mitigate her winter fuel cut and instead confirmed an already-announced uplift to the household support fund, which is designed to help people on benefits.
There are just seven weeks left until the deadline for pensioners to claim pension credit, which entitles them to carry on receiving the £200-£300 winter fuel allowance.
Yet latest figures from the government, dated up to the end of September, have shown around 800,000 pensioners eligible for pension credit have still not applied, despite a public advertising campaign.
Labour MP Rachael Maskell, who has led the rebellion over the winter fuel cut, said she was concerned that so many older people were missing out with just weeks to go before the deadline.
She told i: “I appreciate that we have seven weeks to go to the 21 December deadline, but the numbers will still be highly significant, not to mention those that cannot claim but are fuel poor.
“I am still in discussions about mitigation, but the cost to individuals and the NHS are still unknown, although the End Fuel Poverty coalition believed that there would be 262,000 more requiring the NHS.
“We are fortunate to have a warm autumn to date, but this could turn at any time, so I am worried that the necessary mitigation is yet to be found.”
Ms Maskell asked Keir Starmer at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday whether he would set up a Pensioner Poverty Taskforce, but he said only that the government would “deliver on our manifesto commitment to tackle child poverty, as we did last time in government. We will publish our strategy in the spring”.
The Labour MP said his lack of reply on pensioner poverty was “very disappointing in the light of the urgency of the issue”.
Around 120,000 pensioners on housing benefit will receive letters from the government in the next few weeks advising them to apply for pension credit.
This follows a trial by the Department for Work and Pensions showing around a third of older people on housing benefit went on to apply for pension credit after receiving a letter.
A Government spokesperson said: “We will do everything possible to support vulnerable families this winter – including with the £150 Warm Home Discount, expected to support three million eligible households, and our drive to boost Pension Credit, which has already seen a 152% increase in claims.
“Minister Fahnbulleh has continued to meet with energy suppliers since August to agree a credible and robust plan with vulnerable people firmly at the centre.
“We look forward to providing further detail on this plan in due course.”
The Chancellor raised taxes by £40bn in the budget and tweaked fiscal rules to allow more borrowing.
Labour argue this is to plug a £22bn blackhole in the nation’s finances they claim was left by the Tories. this is denied by the Conservatives.
Reeves suggested the tax rise was not an easy choice, telling BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Look, what alternative was there? We had a £22 billion black hole in the public finances.”
She also pumped £25bn into the NHS and earmarked an extra £6.7bn for school buildings.
Sir Keir Starmer said the Government had “done the responsible thing” at the Budget by taking “difficult, tough decisions”.
He told broadcasters: “We had to do what is responsible to fix the foundations and rebuild our country.
“As I think is well understood, we inherited a £22 billion black hole, money that wasn’t accounted for by the last government. I’m not prepared to simply walk past that, we have to fix it.“So, we have done the responsible thing.”
The Prime Minister stressed that the Budget meant investment in the NHS, schools and housebuilding.
He added: “So, yes, difficult decisions, but we have scrubbed down, we have taken the difficult, tough decisions now, and I think everybody, or many people, will be in agreement that health, education and housing, and issues like that, are the really important things for our country to be driving towards.”
Meanwhile the International Monetary Fund, in an unusual move, backed the Budget, stating: “We support the envisaged reduction in the deficit over the medium term, including by sustainably raising revenue.”