The authorities didn’t perform an impact assessment on chopping winter fuel help for thousands and thousands of pensioners in England and Wales, the prime minister has stated.

Sir Keir Starmer stated he had not been proven any evaluation privately concerning the attainable penalties of his choice to remove the payment from older individuals who don’t obtain pension credit score.

His feedback got here after the Conservatives referred to as for any impact assessment to be printed.

Sir Keir stated: “There isn’t a report on my desk which somehow we’re not showing.”

Speaking to reporters throughout a flight to the US, the prime minister added: “I know you think there’s a report on my desk but there isn’t one.”

He said it was not legally necessary for an official assessment of the plan to be done in advance.

Speaking earlier, a Downing Street spokesman had said: “There are clear rules on this that we followed carefully.”

No 10 pointed to the fact the mechanism the government chose to make this change, known as a statutory instrument, only requires an impact assessment if the cost of the legislation is greater than £10m – which it is not in this case.

At Prime Minister’s Question Time on Wednesday, Conservative leader Rishi Sunak demanded the government publish its impact assessment of the measure and accused Sir Keir of “hiding” the analysis.

Speaking on Thursday, Sir Keir said the decision to remove winter fuel payments, worth up to £300 a year, from millions of pensioners was necessary to stabilise the economy, and that the government was putting “mitigations” in place.

“The impact will be mitigated by pension credit, by the housing benefit,” the prime minister continued.

The authorities has inspired pensioners to test in the event that they qualify for pension credit score – and in that case, to use for it, as this may imply they might hold getting the winter fuel payment too.

Analysis by the House of Commons Library says that 10.8 million pensioners in England and Wales acquired the winter fuel payment final winter. This coming winter, 1.5 million will obtain the payment.