IDS: pensioners' benefits cut could appear in next manifesto

Iain Duncan Smith said pensioners will get plenty of warning in a manifesto pledge "if there are going to be any changes made" to their benefits, which include free bus passes, television licences and prescriptions.

His comments are likely to be seen as another strong hint that universal benefits for pensioners could be targeted for cuts after 2015.

The Cabinet minister also said the next generation of retired people will need to save more to make sure they do not have any "extra dependence" on the state beyond their basic pension.

Speaking on BBC Radio Four's Today Programme, he suggested future pensioners should not expect any additional universal benefits on top of their new flat-rate pension from the state.

"There is a cohesive message which says for the most vulnerable people, we want to protect them as much as possible," he said.

"For the next generation coming through [we want] to ensure they make the kind of savings, the provisions, that allow them to be taken above any extra dependence on the state whilst they receive a decent basic state pension."

David Cameron has promised to protect universal benefits for pensioners, including the bus passes, television licenses and winter fuel payments, during this Government.

However, they are almost the only area of welfare spending to remain unaffected by billions of pounds in spending cuts.

The Coalition's mid-term review document this week stressed four times that the payments are just protected "in this parliament".

Mr Duncan Smith today said any changes to universal benefits for pensioners will be set out well in advance to give them time to plan their income.

"You need to take more time and take longer over changes to pensioners than anyone else," he said.

"The Prime Minister said they wouldn't be changing anything at all in this parliament. If there are going to be any changes made as a proposal, those are the sort of changes that have to go into a manifesto but you’d have to be talking about those in advance.

"We’re half way through the parliament and we don’t make plans for the next Government at this stage."

Paul Johnson, a director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said more than half of the current welfare bill of £200 billion goes to pensioners, but this has so far been largely "untouched" by efforts to make savings.

He said: "There are political reasons for that, but there are also kind of other good reasons, in particular it’s much harder for pensioners to change their behaviour and their incomes once they hit pension age, and a lot of that money for pensioners is wrapped up in the state pension where there is, at least to a large extent, a promise about what it is that will be paid.

"But it is very noticeable that that is one group that has not been affected by the austerity programme as a whole.”