Report recommends axing age-related benefits for OAPs

Pensioners could lose the right to triple-locked pensions, free TV licences and winter fuel allowances after a report by the House of Lords said such age-related benefits were no longer needed.

It argued the older generation is now so well off that measures put in place to end old age poverty are no longer appropriate.

The recommendations have been met with much criticism, however, with opponents saying people who have worked hard all their lives are being penalised.

A number of charities have also warned that pitching the elderly in society against the young will only lead to divisions.

Tory MP Peter Bone told the Express: "We should look after our older generation as they have served the country well and I think this idea that we should be looking to penalise pensioners is wrong.

"These people have paid their taxes, worked hard and were at one time young themselves. We shouldn't bow to the cult of youth."

The report on intergenerational fairness suggested that resentment could fester if government policy wasn’t rebalanced to favour the young.

Among the areas covered in the report was the “triple lock” on state pensions, which means payments are guaranteed to go up every year by the same rate as inflation.

This means a growth in earnings of 2.5 per cent, but the Lords said it should be dropped, with increases relating to average pay only.

From June next year, free TV licences for the over-75s will be bankrolled by the BBC, but the report suggested they should be phased out.

Further proposed reforms include the winter fuel allowance only kicking in five years after reaching state pension age, which is when free bus passes would also be issued.

Jan Shortt, the general secretary of the National Pensioners Convention, told the news provider: "One in four older people rely on the TV as their main or only source of companionship, and pensioner poverty is now on the rise again.

"We don't want the free TV licence taken away. We need it guaranteed."