Labour minister Pat McFadden has told pensioners concerned about plans to restrict winter fuel payments that it is “not a decision (Labour) wanted to take”. Speaking on BBC Breakfast on Sunday (25 August), Mr McFadden said: “When we came into office we found billions of pounds of unfunded spending commitments… so we had to make a very difficult decision. “It’s really important that people know that if they’re entitled to Pension Credit they’ll still get this benefit. There are an estimated almost 900,000 pensioners who are entitled to Pension Credit who don’t currently claim it. “We will do everything we can to encourage people to claim this. We want people to claim things they’re entitled to.”