Should wealthy pensioners get benefits?

Pensioners with an income of over £50,000 should not be entitled to benefits like the Winter Fuel Allowance or a free bus pass.

That is according to the Free Enterprise Group of Conservative MPs, which today have published a paper calling for ministers to be "brave enough" to tell the wealthiest pensioners that their benefits will be cut.

Winter Fuel Allowance payments are currently being sent out to everyone in the UK over 60, regardless of need.

The payments cost over £2bn a year, more in hard winters when extra cold weather payments are made.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's The World at One programme, Angus Hanton, co‐founder of the Intergenerational Foundation, told business correspondent Jonty Bloom: "If you look at the over 65s, there virtually a million people who live in households with a total wealth of more than a million pounds."

"But if you go down to those who are 60 and above, you've got 2m people living in households with assets of a million pounds or more."

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