Former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown has spoken to the Politics Hub with Sophy Ridge tonight.
As the man who introduced the winter fuel payment, it was only natural for Sophy to ask about the current situation.
To remind you, the government cut the payment for millions of pensioners last year – but announced earlier today a plan to review the situation and maybe make it more generous.
The cut had been met with fury from voters.
Brown says he believes the current prime minister when he says the changes are being made due to improved economic circumstance – opponents of Labour say this is a political decision.
The former prime minister and chancellor goes on: “You must be fair to the different communities in your country when they’re struggling.
“And so you’ve got to be fair, obviously, to people who are suffering because of any changes in the benefit system.
“So I don’t want to see anybody pushed into poverty as a result of that – and you’ve got to be fair to pensioners.
“And I think there is a strong case – I did bring it in, it’s a universal benefit – I think there is a case, for example, for people on the top rate of tax not receiving it, but that’s something the government has got to decide.
“I think that was in the Labour 2015 manifesto, so I think the government’s got decisions to make about how to do this, but to me the issue is nobody should be pushed into poverty if they’re doing the right thing.
“Nobody who’s working hard or nobody who’s served the country well over their lifetime should be pushed into poverty if we can avoid it, and I believe that that’s what he’s really thinking about, a fairness guarantee for pensioners.”
