Keir Starmer’s government has faced fury over its axing of the winter fuel payment (Image: Getty)
Labour “doesn’t know” how many pensioners are waiting for their , the have warned.
Rachel Reeves axed the up-to-£300 lifeline for about 10million pensioners ahead of winter last year.
Shadow Pensions Secretary Helen Whately asked in the Commons on Monday: “How many people are still waiting for their ?”
Work and pensions minister Torsten Bell replied: “Everybody who made their claim for pension credit before December 21 will receive their when that claim is processed.”
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But Ms Whately hit back by saying: “The answer is he doesn’t know. He doesn’t know how many people are waiting for their .
“He doesn’t know how many people are stuck in the pension credit backlog. He doesn’t know when they’ll hear. He doesn’t know who’s had help from their local council. He doesn’t know how many people who lost their have ended up in hospital this winter.
“He and his department have dodged or refused to answer every single one of those questions in recent weeks. So, will he commit to a full review of the cut so we can get those answers?”
Mr Bell said: “I’ll commit to fighting every day to avoid a repeat of the exercise under the last government where pensioner poverty rose by 300,000, having fallen by a million under the last Labour government.
“We will make sure that we publish details on the take-up of pension credit by the end of February.”
The Daily Express has demanded that Ms Reeves U-turn on her decision to scrap the lifeline.
It comes as a Labour MP pressed the Government on whether means-testing the winter fuel allowance was “working” while another called for a pensioner poverty taskforce to be set up.
Neil Duncan-Jordan, Labour MP for Poole, pointed to figures that showed at least 800,000 pensioners are eligible for pension credit but do not claim it.
He said: “This means they have now also lost out on the that they previously would have enjoyed. Does the minister think that means-testing is working?”
Mr Bell replied: “The statistics [Mr Duncan-Jordan] refers to relate to previous years, before the recent campaign on take-up has taken place.
“But he is right to highlight that under the Conservative government, three in 10 eligible pensioners were missing out.”
Labour MP Rachael Maskell mentioned government figures showing an additional 42,500 people who claimed pension credit. However, this is only just about 5% of all those eligible.
She said: “Would he think about setting up a pensioner poverty taskforce, so we really can get underneath the issues which are facing older people?”
Mr Bell replied: “It is important, on pensioner poverty specifically, that we do update our understanding of how that has developed, because if we look at the record what we see is that pensioner poverty halved under the last Labour government, but it rose by 300,000 under the Tory government for the last 14 years.”