Tories woo young voters with call for means-tested winter fuel benefit

WINTER fuel payments for pensioners should be means-tested to combat intergenerational unfairness, a project backed by Michael Gove will announce today.

The Environment Secretary will launch essays written by new Conservative MPS, called New Blue: Ideas for a New Generation, at an event in Parliament this evening, The Daily Telegraph can reveal. In one, Paul Masterton MP calls on the Government to think again about pensioner benefits.

The project, backed by the Centre for Policy Studies think tank, is designed to attract younger generations to vote Conservative. Mr Gove’s involvement will fuel speculation about a possible future leadership bid.

Mr Masterton says the universal winter fuel payment should be replaced by a means-tested benefit.

In his essay he notes: “The current universal system means precious public funds are being spent on well-off pensioners.”

He adds that pensioners should pay National Insurance for longer, as the Government forgoes more than £1 billion each year by exempting everyone above the state pension age.