PENSIONERS’ groups and trade unionists joined forced in Irvine today to call for the winter-fuel payment means test to be ditched.

Unite Community, backed by Irvine and North Ayrshire Trades Union Council and Waspi Scotland, took to the town’s beach to call on the Labour government not to wash away support for pensioners “on the tide of austerity.”

They argued that those short of claiming pension credit by as little as a pound stand to lose between £200 and £300 by the introduction of the means test.