Fewer than 5 per cent of pensioners sign up for winter fuel payments

Fewer than 5 per cent of pensioners urged to sign up to a scheme to keep receiving winter fuel payments have done so.

Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, announced in July that the payments of up to £300 will be removed from millions of pensioners, and will only be available to those on pension credit.

At the time, Ms Reeves said more than 800,000 people who qualify for the support, given to those most in financial need, are not registered and announced a push to sign people up.

But statistics revealed that just a fraction of that group have registered.

In the five weeks since the announcement was made on July 29, 38,500 people had applied for pension credit – fewer than 5 per cent of the 800,000 missing recipients.

There has been criticism that sign-up forms containing 243 questions are too complicated.

Labour MPs have said some constituents claim they were told forms will take nine weeks to process. Some applicants will also be rejected.

A vote is being held in the House of Commons on Tuesday over the change in policy, which has led to Ms Reeves and Sir Keir Starmer facing a growing backlash.

Their approach to changing the payments from universal to means-tested means that 10 million of the 11 million current recipients lose out.

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Labour MPs are warning that the threshold for the payment has been set too low, with pensioners on as little as £13,000 a year losing the money.

Dozens of Labour MPs are expected to rebel on Tuesday by refusing to support the policy, either abstaining or voting against the measure.

But the vote is still expected to be won comfortably by the Government, given Labour has a huge Commons majority thanks to its victory in the July election.

The Prime Minister has argued the spending cut had to be adopted to help fill an alleged £22 billion “black hole” in the public finances left by the Tory government.

Downing Street on Monday insisted it would push ahead with the policy and gave no indication any change of course ahead of vote.

Senior ministers discussed the policy at a meeting of the Cabinet on Monday.

Asked if any ministers had spoken against the move, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “Cabinet were in agreement on the importance of fixing the economy and that being the foundation of everything that we do.”

Asked if there had been any discussion on softening the impact of the policy, the spokesperson said: “No.”