Martin Lewis has welcomed a partial U-turn by Sir Keir Starmer on winter fuel payments.
On Wednesday, the prime minister announced he wanted to allow more pensioners to claim the winter fuel payments, worth up to £300, alongside improvements in the UK economy.
It marked a turnaround for the Labour government, which, last July, said pensioners not in receipt of pension credits or other means tested benefited would not receive the cash to help with energy bill in colder months.
The move came amid a mounting backlash from his own MPs concerned about the party’s performance at the recent local elections.
Although no details have been released on how many more pensioners would be eligible, or if the policy would be altered in time for this winter, Mr Lewis, founder of MoneySavingExpert.com, welcomed the move on social media.
But speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme on Friday, Mr Lewis said the government needed to focus on the estimated 700,000 eligible people who were not claiming pension credit, as they will miss out on winter fuel payments as it stands.
Currently, those aged over 66 in receipt of pension credits or other means tested benefits are eligible for the winter fuel payment.
Among those not claiming pension credit, Mr Lewis said, were the most vulnerable in society, including some with onset dementia and those struggling to fill in forms or unaware of what is going on.
He said: “I don’t hear from them for the same reason they aren’t claiming. So we have a real problem that the most vulnerable have been ignored on pension credit because they are entitled to it but not claiming and the way pension works, it is over complex to understand, the forms are too difficult.”
Mr Lewis also said the threshold for pension credit was too low, as people receiving the full state pension, worth £11,973 a year, currently do not receive the winter fuel payment.
The government has also recently come under fire for its review into Personal Independent Payment (PIP) as part of cost-cutting benefit reforms. The Office for Budget Responsibility is projecting changes could impact around 800,000 recipients.
In a speech this week, work and pensions Secretary Liz Kendall doubled down on Labour’s planned £5 billion welfare cuts.
Asked about the cuts, Mr Lewis said his mail box was “flooded” with people sharing concerns on support for physical and mental health issues.
He said: “[They are] worried about how they will they will live and how they will continue.
“When you take a payment away from people with no other income, the biggest problem is what do you do, how do you transition them to a new lower income when prices are going up? The answer is you can’t.”
