Ministers have been accused of a serious error over winter fuel payment cuts that will damage public confidence in the policy.
The row erupted after the department in charge of the changes wrongly claimed that pensioners made up more than half of one MP’s constituency.
Tory MP Alicia Kearns hit out at the “preposterous” mistake and challenged ministers on how locals can have confidence in “what the government is doing if they… can’t even get the basic numbers right?”
Millions of pensioners are to be stripped of the help to pay their winter fuel bills, after Labour blamed the last Conservative government for leaving a £22bn black hole in the public finances.
Ministers have pledged to protect less well-off pensioners and urged them to apply for pension credit, under which they would still be eligible for the £200-300 this winter.
Challenging work and pensions minister Emma Reynolds in the Commons, Ms Kearns said that “the department told me that 48,351 people in my constituency of Rutland and Stamford had been eligible for winter fuel payments”.
She added: “That is a preposterous figure… for a heartless and unnecessary decision that will cost more in the long term. So how do I or any of my residents have confidence in what the government is doing if they believe that over half my constituency is made up of pensioners and can’t get the basic numbers right?”
The Conservatives also accused ministers of having "negligently underestimated" how many pensioners will "fall through the cracks", as shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately urged the government to "think again".
She pointed to a letter from the Social Security Advisory Committee (SSAC) last month, which said the savings from limiting the winter fuel allowance to only the poorest pensioners was unclear and could be wiped out by a rise in those seeking pension credit.
The SSAC also criticised the government for not providing an impact assessment of its plans before they were brought into law.
Ms Reynolds told MPs: "We didn’t want to take the decision to means-test winter fuel payments but we’ve had to do this, to take some difficult decisions, in order to clear up the mess, to tackle the fiscal inheritance and start rebuilding our public services, which pensioners across the country and many, many others rely on."
Ministers said last month that they planned to write to 120,000 of the most vulnerable pensioners who they feared would miss out on the payments after the changes – but many face delays in having their applications for pension credits processed.
