Making the winter fuel allowance a means-tested benefit to help fund long-term care would discourage people from saving and worsen the pension credit crisis in future, a commentator has said.
Means testing for winter fuel allowance would reduce spending on pensioner benefits despite the administrative cost, the government has said.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has called for state pension benefits to be means-tested in a move which would see wealthier older people having to pay for certain services currently available to them free of charge.
Pensioners have been unfairly insulated from government spending cuts and £16bn could be saved if their benefits are reduced, a think- tank says.
Failure to reduce the upper age limit on auto-enrolment into workplace pensions from state pension age (SPA) may mean workers near retirement will lose their savings to means testing, Aegon says.
John Hutton, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has admitted reforms to the State pension should try and stop the spread of mean-testing to allow people to save with confidence.
THE NAPF has warned members of collapsed company pension schemes they can expect serious delays before they get payments from the £400m FAS, writes the Telegraph .
Citizens Advice has warned MPs the means-tested pension credit is failing to serve a large number of the very poorest pensioners it was originally set up to benefit.
Forcing pensioners, and then often the poorest of them, to account for every penny of savings and income is undermining access to state pension benefits, the Citizens Advice Bureau says.