MPs open DWP poverty inquiry after analysis showed one group of Brits clearly worse off

MPs have opened an inquiry into the state of Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) financial support, after a minister admitted that cost-cutting reforms would plunge 50,000 people in one age group into poverty. Labour revealed shortly after getting into power that the £300 Winter Fuel Payment would become means-tested, but now predicts the move will leave thousands of pensioners struggling to make ends meet.

The Work and Pensions Committee opened the first stage of the inquiry on Friday, asking experts and older Brits to submit evidence and testimony so that parliament can get insight into the many financial challenges facing pensioners. MPs want to know if "pension age benefits and the State Pension [are] enough to stop pensioners from falling into poverty?"

Labour's DWP minister Liz Kendall MP told the committee in a letter last week that the department's internal modelling showed 50,000 more pensioners falling into relative poverty each year, as a result of restricting the Winter Fuel Payment to Pension Credit claimants. This was down from a previously unknown initial estimate of 100,000 in just this winter alone.

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However, it is not just the restriction of this £200 to £300 in cash assistance with heating bills that is affecting pensioners, most of whom live on fixed incomes while facing the same cost of living pressures as younger Brits. Making matters worse, many in the older age groups are reticent to accept help, or unaware it is out there.

By the DWP's estimation, there are still 760,000 British pensioners who qualify for Pension Credit, a benefit which provides an average cash boost of £3900 per claimant, but are failing to claim