BISHOPS used a debate in the House of Lords on Wednesday to express their concerns about the loss of winter fuel payments for many pensioners, as peers considered a motion to annul the Government’s decision to apply a means test.

The Bishop of Southwark, the Rt Revd Christopher Chessun, said that he was currently a recipient of winter fuel payments, though he said that peers were “unlikely to be seriously affected” personally by the changes.

For many pensioners in his diocese, however, and potentially millions around the country, the cuts would be a “significant financial hit, with adverse repercussions this coming winter”.

The move, he feared, would “define [the Government] in the public mind for years to come”, despite protestations that the state of the public finances made the policy necessary.

An increased take-up of pension credit, the criterion for eligibility, was not, he suggested, an adequate mitigation. “Means-tested benefits attract doubtless unintended stigmatisation, with a burden to both applicant and state in terms of administration and, inevitably, a failure by those eligible to take up the benefit.”

An alternative “with much to commend it” was making the winter fuel payments a taxable benefit, so that those with higher incomes would pay a proportion of tax back on the payment.

He voted in favour of a motion to annul the planned restrictions, a motion proposed by Baroness Altmann, a non-affiliated life peer and pensions campaigner. Her chief objection was to the speed at which the new policy would be executed, and she stated her agreement with the principle that those with significant assets should not receive the payments.

The motion, which followed the failed attempt in the House of Commons to overturn the new policy on Tuesday, was defeated by 30 votes to 138.

The Bishop of Sheffield, Dr Pete Wilcox, then spoke and voted in support of a milder motion, which he regretted had fallen in the Commons. The motion later fell in the Lords, by 65 votes to 132.

He said that he appreciated that the economic situation meant that “tough choices” had to be made, but argued that “tough choices must also be wise choices”, and that he harboured “misgivings about the wisdom” of the Government’s move.

The timing and pace of the changes was a matter for concern, he said: the energy price cap had been lifted, and this meant that many pensioners would be faced with higher bills at the same time as losing their entitlement to the payments.

Dr Wilcox also queried the basis on which pensioners would be means-tested: their receipt of pension credit. The solution was a simple one, but he doubted that “in this situation a simple solution is the best solution.

“All Members of this House recognise that many either do not claim pension credits to which they are entitled, or are marginally ineligible for those credits, and will inevitably experience considerable additional hardship on account of these regulations.”

Baroness Sherlock responded to the debate on behalf of the Government, and reiterated the argument that the cut was necessary, owing to a “huge hole in the public finances”.

“No one thinks that things are OK in our country,” she said, and referred to strains on the health service, public services, and the criminal-justice system.

Baroness Sherlock, who was ordained in 2018, is currently Under-Secretary of State in the Department for Work and Pensions. She called for an end to the stigma of receiving benefits, and urged people to check whether they still qualified for winter fuel payments, despite being just over the threshold for pension credit, as they might be entitled to payments.

“Please tell anyone you know who might be able to qualify to get in there and find out,” she said, and highlighted the Government’s efforts to make people aware of their entitlements.

On Wednesday, a spokesman for Christians Against Poverty (CAP) warned that many of their clients had “deep concern” about the changes, and some of them would miss out on payments because they were just over the threshold (News, 12 September).

One in three people entitled to pension credit were not claiming it, the CAP spokesman said, and he urged people to use the calculator tool on the charity’s website to check that they were not missing out on any payments.