Change means about 7.5 million pensioners in England and Wales who lost out on payment will have it restored

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All pensioners with an income of £35,000 or less a year will have the winter fuel payment restored in full, Rachel Reeves has announced, after weeks of uncertainty over the decision to make a U-turn on scrapping the benefit.

Ministers are restoring the automatic payments as a universal benefit this winter and then recouping the money when higher-income pensioners fill in their tax returns, as creating a new means test would be a highly complex option.