IAIN Duncan Smith has been accused of making pensioners feel guilty about their entitlements to benefits after he suggested the wealthy should hand them back.
Age Scotland criticised the Work and Pensions Secretary for claiming yesterday that older people who are not in need of benefit payments to help with fuel bills or free travel should voluntarily return them.
The comments provoked dismissive responses from Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Tory Minister Without Portfolio Ken Clarke.
A spokesman for Age Scotland said: "Making people feel guilty is just wrong at a time when fuel poverty is still sky high. If some older people who feel reasonably well off or even affluent want to donate the equivalent of their winter fuel payment to charity, then that's up to them.
He added: "It could lead some people on limited means being made to feel guilty about their entitlements at a time when a much greater issue is such people not taking up the payments they are entitled to."
Prime Minister David Cameron has stood by his election pledge to protect universal benefits for pensioners until at least 2015, despite the Coalition's austerity drive.
Mr Duncan Smith repeated at the weekend his view that wealthy pensioners should consider repaying the money.
He said: "It is up to them, if they don't want it, to hand it back."
He added that he would encourage everybody who "doesn't need it to hand it back".
Liberal Democrat leader Mr Clegg told the BBC's Sunday Politics: "I have always argued for us to change the system. I do not think it is reasonable for us to say to a working family who has just had their child benefit taken away – why should they through their taxes pay for the multi-millionaire pensioner next door for his TV licence or his winter fuel payment?
"I think we should grasp this nettle just as we have grasped other nettles in government. The Conservatives don't want to do so."
Mr Clegg said: "You give people benefits and then you say, 'Oh, by the way, can you please give them back?' I don't think that makes sense. Let's be clear about this. When money is tight, you have to have the right priorities in tough times."
Minister Without Portfolio Ken Clarke doubted the logistics of his Cabinet colleague's call for people to hand back payments. He said: "You can't hand it back to the Government. I don't think it has a system for doing that.
"Every pensioner and retired person like myself has to make up their own mind about whether they really need it and whether they are going to give it to some worthwhile cause."
A Department for Work and Pensions spokeswoman said: "People can contact the DWP's winter fuel payment hotline to discuss handing back or terminating their winter fuel payment should they wish to. This has been the case for several years."
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