Nearly eight in ten voters think Labour should ditch its winter fuel payments policy.
The party is under growing pressure to reverse slashing the subsidy for 10 million pensioners amid a brewing backbench rebellion and a threat of ministerial resignations over wider welfare cuts.
A YouGov poll found that less than one in ten (7 per cent) of voters believe Labour should keep its policy unchanged.
A third said it should return to the previous system, where all pensioners receive winter fuel payments regardless of their income.
Some 44 per cent said it should stay means-tested but that eligibility should be widened to include more low-income households.
The findings will pile pressure on Sir Keir Starmer to climb down over the cuts to the payments, worth up to £300 a year for vulnerable pensioners.
This week, he said the Government will look at raising the income threshold (£11,800) to qualify for the payments.
A third of those polled said Labour should return to the previous system, where all pensioners receive winter fuel payments regardless of their income. Pictured: Stock image
The findings will pile pressure on Sir Keir Starmer, pictured, to climb down over the cuts to the payments, worth up to £300 a year for vulnerable pensioners
However, he said this would be done at the earliest at the next ‘fiscal event’, which is the October Budget.
It means any change may not come into force until the following year, meaning lower-income pensioners potentially face another winter of choosing between ‘heating or eating’.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves said last July that stripping pensioners of the allowance was necessary to save £1.5 billion a year to help plug the £22 billion ‘black hole’ in the public finances she claims the Tories left behind.
But experts say it may save as little as two-thirds of this.
