Chancellor Rachel Reeves has been urged to boost a Christmas bonus paid to pensioners after winter fuel cuts and the Waspi row.

The £10 payment is given to people on state pension as well as those on certain other benefits.

But campaign group Silver Voices is calling for the one-off tax-free sum, which has not been increased since it was introduced in 1972, to be uprated in line with inflation.

The bonus, paid before Christmas, would now stand at £115.76 under the Bank of England inflation calculator.

Silver Voices director Dennis Reed said: “The Chancellor has been rightly labelled as a Scrooge for scrapping the winter fuel payment for so many poor pensioners, and this week forcing the Department for Work and Pensions to scrap Waspi compensation.

“Just like Scrooge, she has the opportunity of a last-minute conversion to make Christmas a happier place for older people.

“It is not right that universal pensioner benefits have not been uprated for decades, whereas other benefits are usually inflation-proofed.

“Rachel Reeves has the perfect mechanism to change her image and regain a modicum of popularity.”

The demand comes as Labour has faced an ongoing backlash for stripping around 10 million OAPs of previously universal winter fuel payments.

Most Popular Comments

“I am 82. I received the £10.00 Thank you Rachel not sure what to do with it though as it won’t even buy me a pizza. Maybe give it a homeless …” 15

“Rachel from customer services is more than likely to cancel the Christmas bonus than …” 11

“My £10 went on a new wooly hat to try to keep warm in my flat. Happy Christmas Rachel.” 10

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The move is aimed at saving the Treasury up to £1.5 billion a year but has been condemned by opposition parties, charities and unions.

There was fresh fury last week after the Government ruled out compensation to women affected by changes to the state pension age.

Ministers said paying the money to members of the Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) campaign would not be a fair use of taxpayer cash.

A DWP spokesperson said: “We want to fix the fundamentals of the social security system we inherited, so people don’t have to rely on crisis support.

“That’s why we are increasing the National Living Wage, uprating benefits, helping over a million pensioners with a winter fuel payment, remain committed to protecting the triple lock, and have extended the household support fund to provide an extra layer of cost of living support for those who need it.”