With her feet now firmly under the desk new chancellor Rachel Reeves has had a chance to take a look at the books and she says it’s not good news.

And in her clearest attempt yet to prove how brassic she believes the country is, one of her first cost-cutting swipes has been aimed at the nation’s pensioners.

From this autumn around 10 million older people will lose their winter fuel allowance - worth between £100 and £300.

Instead, extra money to help with the cost of gas and electric will be limited instead to those only on pension credit or some other form of means tested benefit.

The move, which Labour is blaming on ‘undisclosed spending’ by the previous government, is somewhat reminiscent of the decision in 2020 to scrap free TV Licences for all over 75s.

And in the same way that not every older person - regardless of their income - should receive a free £169-licence each year simply because of their age, the issue of a free-for-all approach to energy bill help probably needs investigating too?

In a country where families are struggling to feed their children and schools can’t heat their classrooms it cannot be right that those with healthy bank accounts or the thousands who spend a proportion of winter abroad each year pocket cash they can do without.

I also struggle to buy into the argument that being a lifelong tax payer makes you entitled.

In an ideal world yes maybe it should - but we all know the country’s finances can’t permit unfettered access to extra financial help just because a date of birth says so.

But with energy bills as high as they are - and tariffs only expected to rise this winter - is being in receipt of pension credit truly a fair assessment of who can and can’t heat their home this winter? Or a lazy one?

Because to suggest all those but the very very poorest will be able to afford a healthy supply of gas and electricity through our coldest, dampest months is wrong.

Age UK estimates about one million pensioners alone have weekly incomes which are less than £50 above the poverty line, who will now lose the payment this year.

Could a means-tested income threshold not have been applied instead?

Or - rather than giving physical cash to those that don’t need it - apply credits instead to fuel bills so the money at least gets used for what it is meant for?

Alternatively like Martin Lewis has suggested - why not offer winter fuel help to those living in homes within certain council tax bands - in similar rules to those that were applied in 2022 when millions of households were given state help with sky-high energy payments?

I appreciate there are issues with take-up among older people. And the government is already facing tough questions about how it will ensure everyone entitled to pension credit claims before winter, with an estimated one in three pensioners already missing out.

But surely there must be a better way?

Not least because an expensive winter - after a somewhat cold damp summer that’s done nothing to improve the credit on our bills - is now on the horizon, people have been given very little notice meaning this blanket cut-off point demands further investigation and quick.