Hundreds of thousands of pensioners will be pushed into poverty due to cuts to winter fuel payments, official government data revealed on Tuesday.

Ministers were warned about the impact of cutting the vital help for OAPs before they made a decision to go ahead with the policy. Around 450,000 elderly people will be pushed into relative poverty and 300,000 will be pushed into absolute poverty by 2030 after housing costs. Relative poverty is when people can afford everyday basics like food, health needs and drinking water but nothing else and absolute poverty is when people cannot meet basic needs.

announced it was cutting the £300 winter fuel allowance for 10 million pensioners in the summer. Chancellor announced the support would now be restricted to just OAPs on pension credit or other benefits. She said she was left with no other option after finding a £22billion black hole in the public finances left by the Tories.

The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) on Tuesday published an internal analysis of the policy. It showed that ministers were aware of the number of pensioners that would be plunged into poverty but decided to continue with the decision.

in September an impact assessment on cutting winter fuel payments. "I know you think there's a report on my desk which somehow we're not showing you. There isn't a report on my desk I'm not showing you, it's as simple as that," he said.

Updated modelling includes more up-to-date economic factors including wages and growth. The original modelling, which was used to inform ministers' decision on the policy, showed that the number of pensioners in poverty would have increased even faster.

Liberal Democrat Treasury spokeswoman Daisy Cooper branded the figures "shocking" and call on the Government to U-turn on the policy. She said: "The Government must step up and do the right thing: finally reverse the Winter Fuel Payment cut. Cutting this allowance will drive more vulnerable older people into poverty, forcing them to choose between heating and eating.

“While the Conservatives undoubtedly left this Government a dire fiscal inheritance, that's no excuse to push more pensioners into poverty as the temperature plummets. We cannot stand by and leave millions of older people to endure another winter in a cost of living crisis."

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