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DISCUSSIONS IN GOVERNMENT HAVE INCLUDED CHANGING THE THRESHOLD AT WHICH PENSIONERS STOP RECEIVING THE BENEFIT, OR RESTORING THE PAYMENTS TO ALL PENSIONERS. 14:50, 20 May 2025Updated 14:52,

20 May 2025 The Labour Party government and Department for Work and Pensions ( DWP ) "are discussing" whether to reverse the controversial decision to cut £300 Winter Fuel

Allowances for state pensioners. Discussions in government have included changing the threshold at which pensioners stop receiving the benefit, or restoring the payments to all pensioners.

The talks are understood to be fluid, and have not yet reached a conclusion, the BBC says.. Any announcement could come as soon as the spending review on 11 June, when the Chancellor Rachel

Reeves will unveil government departments' budgets for the coming years. READ MORE SANTANDER ISSUES UPDATE TO 14 MILLION 'ACTIVE' CUSTOMERS AFTER MAKING BIG DECISION Ms Reeves

said the government faced a "tough inheritance" and took some "tough decisions", adding "I do understand the concerns that people have." She said she would

"continue to listen to understand the concerns that people have raised". "We are a government that listens," the chancellor said. "But we would always need to show

where the money is going to come from if we're going to make any policy changes. That would be part of the normal process." Ms Reeves told Labour backbenchers: "It is the

right thing to do, to target money at a time when finances are so stretched, at people who need them most." And Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer's spokesman told reporters there

"will not be a change to the government's policy". But Labour MP Stella Creasy said it would be "remiss" of the government to dismiss concerns over the £300 cut.

Article continues below "Those concerns are being heard across the party," Creasy said. "Those of us who have been around a long time and among new MPs, there's a genuine

concern to get this right and that's now what the government needs to respond to." "This U-turn is taking so long it puts turning an oil tanker around to shame," Liberal

Democrats Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper said. "The government should feel embarrassed that it has taken a dire set of a local election results to realise what everyone has known

from the start: this policy was doomed to fail and punished some of the most vulnerable."