Well-off pensioners who do not need benefit payments should voluntarily hand back the money to the government, Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith said on Sunday.
The minister said wealthy elderly people should pay back taxpayer-funded financial support such as the heating bills, free bus passes and television licences.
He told the Sunday Telegraph there were “no plans to change” the current system, which Prime Minister David Cameron promised to protect at the last election.
But he told the newspaper: “It is up to them, if they don’t want it, to hand it back. I would encourage everybody who reads the Telegraph and doesn’t need it, to hand it back.”
The welfare reforms introduced by Duncan Smith, a former Conservative leader, have been strongly criticised for hitting families already struggling amid the economic gloom.
He argues that the changes, introduced amid a major programme of spending cuts designed to reduce the deficit, are intended to ensure people are better off in work than living on state handouts.
Wealthy pensioners urged to hand back benefits
