Vince Cable calls for 'protected' pensioners to lose benefits Speaking to the Murnaghan programme on Sky News Mr Cable suggested that in future pensioners" benefits should be taxed or means tested. "We've been through a very difficult time after the financial crisis, a lot of people in work have been hit badly but relatively affluent people of pensionable age have been protected and there is an anomaly there and it is a deep anomaly because the reason why a lot of these fringe benefits were brought in like Winter Fuel payment, is because the state pension was being eroded," Mr Cable said. Under this government the state pension has been protected, we've introduced the so-called triple lock and there's much less need for it. I think my party's view is that we've got to address this in a more systematic way rather than just relying on individual conscience and approach the issue of these fringe benefits properly either by suggesting that they should be taxable or restricted to say older pensioners who are less fit for example. Mr Duncan Smith has urged better-off pensioners to repay the money to the Treasury. The Department for Work and Pensions has launched a hotline for pensioners to call if they decide they do not want to receive the winter fuel allowance. Ken Clarke, the Minister Without Portfolio, attacked Mr Duncan Smith's comments and said he did not believe that it was possible to return the money to the Government. You can't hand it back to the Government. I don't think it is 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. No doubt most pensioners who are reasonably prosperous give quite a lot of money to charity and worthwhile causes in any event. Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, said that Mr Duncan Smith's call for pensioners to return money do not "make sense." "I do not think it is reasonable for us to say to a working family who has just had their child benefit taken away," Mr Clegg said. 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.