Reeves defends move to scrap winter fuel payments

Chancellor Rachel Reeves and former chancellor Jeremy Hunt have traded blows in a row over the state of public finances.

Speaking to the BBC, Ms Reeves defended her decision to scrap winter fuel payments for around 10 million pensioners.

She said she had found a "black hole" in the public finances and "had to act" to "fix the mess".

But Mr Hunt denied that he had hidden a massive shortfall in the amount of money the government had at its disposal, saying the numbers had been available to Labour.

The new government and the Conservatives have been engaged in an increasingly bitter row after Labour said it uncovered a £22bn hole in the public finances.

Ms Reeves said she had made "tough decisions" based on this position, which have included announcing that from this autumn, pensioners in England and Wales not on pension credit or other means-tested benefits will no longer get winter fuel payments worth between £100 and £300.

She said she had to make the decisions because of the previous government's "deeply irresponsible" overspending, and that Mr Hunt covered up the true state of the public finances when he was chancellor.

"They were not decisions I wanted to make, they were not decisions I expected to make, but when confronted with a £22bn black hole, I had to act," she told the BBC, adding that she had "to fix the mess left by the previous government".

But Mr Hunt has disputed this, and has written to Cabinet Secretary Simon Case to complain about what he sees as conflicting claims made by officials about the "black hole" which risked "bringing the civil service into disrepute".

Having been accused of "profligacy" by Labour in the Commons on Monday, Mr Hunt told the BBC he had been made "angry" by the "political exercise" that Labour were engaged in.

Former pensions minister Baroness Ros Altmann told the BBC she was unhappy at the decision to scrap winter fuel payments.

"I'm shocked that the chancellor has chosen to take money away from some of the poorest people in this country," she said.

Roughly 850,000 households who are eligible to receive pension credit don't actually claim it, according to figures released by the Department for Work and Pensions last year.

Baroness Altmann said many people do not claim because they are "too proud" to do so.

Ms Reeves said pension credit would be merged with housing benefit so more people claim who are entitled to it, and the government would work with older people's charities and local government to increase take-up.