Labour MPs have joined calls for U-turn on planned disability benefit cuts, after Chancellor Rachel Reeves restored winter fuel payments to all but the richest pensioners.
The £1.25 billion plan unveiled on Monday will see automatic payments worth up to £300 given to pensioners with an income less than £35,000 a year.
It followed last year’s decision to strip pensioners of the previously universal scheme, unless they claimed certain benefits, such as pension credit.
Both policies have been unpopular at the polls, with Labour being hit hard in the local elections in May. The news of the winter fuel u-turn has been well-received so far, but many have said the initial decision has pushed voters away.
Nadia Whittome, the Labour MP for Nottingham East, warned ministers they risked making a “similar mistake” if they tighten the eligibility criteria for personal independence payments, known as Pip.
"A U-turn on personal independence payments next?"
— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) June 9, 2025
"We'll have to see what happens going forward."
Victoria Derbyshire presses Labour MP Jeevun Sandher on whether he wants to see a U-turn on the government's benefits policy.#Newsnight pic.twitter.com/n9Y4MrH5Jx
Leeds East MP Richard Burgon called on pensions minister Torsten Bell to “listen now” so that backbenchers can help the Government “get it right”.
In her warning, Ms Whittome said she was not asking Mr Bell “to keep the status quo or not to support people into work” and added: “I’m simply asking him not to cut disabled people’s benefits.”
The pensions minister, who works in both the Treasury and Department for Work and Pensions, replied that the numbers of people receiving Pip is set to “continue to grow every single year in the years ahead, after the changes set out by this Government”.
What are the proposed cuts to DWP disability benefits - it is just Pip changes?
The proposed reforms, set out earlier this year, would tighten the eligibility criteria for personal independence payment (Pip) – the main disability benefit in England – and see the sickness-related element of universal credit (UC) cut.
They also proposed delaying access to the health element of UC to those aged 22 and over, with the aim of reinvesting savings to support young people into work or training.
The package of measures is aimed at reducing the number of working-age people on sickness benefits, and the Government hopes they can save £5 billion a year by the end of the decade.
In its Pathways to Work green paper, the Government proposed a new eligibility requirement, so Pip claimants must score a minimum of four points on one daily living activity, such as preparing food, washing and bathing, using the toilet or reading, to receive the daily living element of the benefit.
“This means that people who only score the lowest points on each of the Pip daily living activities will lose their entitlement in future,” the document noted.
Charities are also urging the government to rethink disability benefits cuts
The Government is already under pressure over the controversial reforms, with Shelter and Crisis among the signatories to a letter to the Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall, voicing concerns over the risks from her proposed changes to the benefits system.
An impact assessment published alongside the reforms warned some 250,000 people – including 50,000 children – could fall into relative poverty as a result of the changes.
Now a letter, co-ordinated by the St Mungo’s homelessness charity, has stated the “deep concern” organisations within the sector feel about the reforms.
The letter stated that the reforms will “push people further away from the labour market, increase homelessness and put excessive pressure on statutory services”.
New @mmhpi research warns that government’s planned PIP reforms will have a “catastrophic impact” on people’s finances and mental health, and could drive people out of the workplace.
— Martin Lewis (@MartinSLewis) June 5, 2025
It says "A system which was already doing a poor job of understanding how mental health…
They said increases in already record levels of homelessness “will have a catastrophic impact on mental and physical health, education and employment opportunities” and have a “domino effect of imposing a significant financial cost to the state” in paying for more temporary accommodation and emergency homelessness services.
The charities added: “Homelessness devastates people’s chances of employment. These cuts and eligibility restrictions will not give people a pathway to work and we urge the Government to reconsider its position.”
What have backbench Labour MPs said about the changes?
Mr Burgon told the Commons: “As a Labour MP who voted against the winter fuel payment cuts, I very much welcome this change in position, but can I urge the minister and the Government to learn the lessons of this and one of the lessons is, listen to backbenchers?
“If the minister and the Government listen to backbenchers, that can help the Government get it right, help the Government avoid getting it wrong, and so what we don’t want is to be here in a year or two’s time with a minister sent to the despatch box after not listening to backbenchers on disability benefit cuts, making another U-turn again.”
Mr Bell replied that it was “important to listen to backbenchers, to frontbenchers”.
What have opposition MPs said about the changes?
Liberal Democrat MP Mike Martin warned that “judging by the questions from his own backbenchers, it seems that we’re going to have further U-turns on Pip and on the two-child benefit cap”.
The Tunbridge Wells MP asked Mr Bell: “To save his colleagues anguish, will he let us know now when those U-turns are coming?”
The minister replied: “What Labour MPs want to see is a Labour Government bringing down child poverty, and that’s what we’re going to do
“What Labour MPs want to see is a Government that can take the responsible decisions, including difficult ones on tax and on means testing the winter fuel payment so that we can invest in public services and turn around the disgrace that has become Britain’s public realm for far too long.”
Conservative former work and pensions secretary Esther McVey had earlier asked whether the Chancellor, “now that she and the Government have got a taste for climbdowns”, would “reverse the equally ridiculous national insurance contribution (Nic) rises, which is destroying jobs, and the inheritance tax changes, which is destroying farms and family businesses”.
Mr Bell said: “This is a party opposite that has learned no lessons whatsoever, that thinks it can come to this chamber, call for more spending, oppose every tax rise and expect to ever be taken seriously again – they will not.”
Could the two-child benefit cap also be due for change?
Labour MP Rebecca Long-Bailey pressed the Government to make changes to the two-child benefit cap, which means most parents cannot claim for more than two children.
“It’s the right thing to do to lift pensioners out of poverty, and I’m sure that both he and the Chancellor also agree that it’s right to lift children out of poverty,” the Salford MP told the Commons.
“So can he reassure this House that he and the Chancellor are doing all they can to outline plans to lift the two-child cap on universal credit as soon as possible?”
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Mr Bell replied: “All levers to reduce child poverty are on the table.
“The child poverty strategy will be published in the autumn.”
He added: “If we look at who is struggling most, having to turn off their heating, it is actually younger families with children that are struggling with that.
“So she’s absolutely right to raise this issue, it is one of the core purposes of this Government, we cannot carry on with a situation where large families, huge percentages of them, are in poverty.”
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