Clegg: Cut benefits for wealthy pensioners

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has called for benefits such as free television licences, winter fuel payments and bus passes to be taken away from wealthy pensioners.

While committing the coalition government to universal benefits until 2015, the Liberal Democrat leader said the issue needed to be reconsidered after that and suggested wealthy pensioners should voluntarily surrender some benefits in order to help "make ends meet". "We have ruled out in the Coalition Agreement changing what are called age-related universal benefits: free TV licences, winter fuel payments and free bus passes," he said in an interview with the BBC. "My own view is for the future that it would be very difficult to explain - and it would be quite interesting if you could...