New Work And Pensions Committee Chair To Prioritise Impact Of Winter Fuel Payment Cut
Labour MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth Deborah Abrahams has been elected chair of the work and pensions committee. (Alamy)
4 min read
The new chair of the work and pensions committee has said there is a "pressing" need to assess the impact of the winter fuel payment cut, particularly on disabled people.
Debbie Abrahams, the Labour MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth, was elected chair of the cross-party committee last week. She replaces Stephen Timms, who is now a minister at the Department for Work and Pensions.
Speaking to PoliticsHome, she said the removal of the universality of winter fuel payments for pensioners was one of the issues her committee planned to prioritise. She described the subject, particularly how it will affect disable pensioners, as "one that is quite pressing".
"We had the impact assessment from the Government that suggests that it is about 70 per cent of disabled pensioners who won't be eligible for pension credit," said Abrahams, who was formerly shadow work and pensions secretary and shadow minister for disabled people.
"Disabled people, as a whole, over the last 14 years or so have really borne the brunt of austerity and cuts in support from the state, and I am very concerned that this will leave many disabled people in an even worse position than they have been in the in the past as well.
"We need to properly understand the impacts of all the Government programmes on disabled people."
She added: "I would be surprised if members don't have a view on that in terms of what we should be doing about that."
In July, the new Government announced its plan to make winter fuel payments for pensioners means-tested on whether or not they qualify for the benefit pension credit. Labour's large majority meant it comfortably cleared the House of Commons in a vote last week, despite strong opposition from the Tories and other political parties.
The financial support had previously been available to all pensioners. However, Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves said they needed to take the "tough" decision to restrict the support in order to fill a £22bn "black hole" which they have accused the Conservatives of inflicting on the public finances while in government.
The decision has caused backlash from stakeholders who warn it could push hundreds of thousands of pensioners into poverty, and caused unease among many Labour MPs.
Abrahams told PoliticsHome her commitment to be a "collaborative" chair of the committee and the importance of the issues the committee is concerned with means that she will be keenly holding the Government to account on areas like this, despite being a Labour MP.
"It's about firm and fair scrutiny of government policy, which is the job of select committees," said Abrahams.
"I'm a former academic, so having an evidence based approach is very important to me as well. I intend for this to be a committee that works in a collaborative way across parties," she said.
Abrahams said she was also keen to interrogate the Government's child poverty task force, and what the Starmer administration's "policy programme" will be on issues like economic inactivity and Universal Credit.
"We know that there are a number of hot topics that need to have a response from the Government," said Abrahams.
"For example, in terms of the ombudsman's report around the women's state pension age, and the the maladministration that occurred for these women.
"We know that the Government has has been very strong in in terms of what they want to do to get people back to work, and so we need to be able to scrutinize those those plans.
"But there's also devolution of employment support to areas like Greater Manchester. We're already doing a little bit of employment support up here, but that's going to go to other parts of the country as well. We need to understand the plans around that, and the mechanisms by which that support will be devolved.
"The Universal Credit review, that's a big one — and of course, within that, the the migration of people on legacy support to Universal Credit."
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