The Government's winter fuel U-turn could tax dead families after confirmed yesterday that more will receive the allowance this winter. However, payments will not be universal, and grieving families of tens of thousands of deceased recipients could be pursued by the taxman to recoup the cost, it has been reported.

Officials are reportedly considering utilising cash from high-income pensioners because creating a new means test would be costly and complex. It is thought there could be at least six months between the £300 being made and getting it back, and many elderly people could have died by then, leaving their relatives to fork out for the bill.

"We should never have scrapped the in the first place, but the whole process of reinstating it has been completely chaotic. The optics of us demanding the money back from grieving families are dire," a source told .

The Chancellor told reporters yesterday that "more people will get winter fuel payment this winter", adding that further details will be announced "as soon as we possibly can".

She said: "People should be in no doubt that the means test will increase and more people will get winter fuel payment this winter."

When asked whether she would tell the public if she planned to fund her commitments by raising taxes or cutting spending on other departments, Ms Reeves said: "As we have been clear, on winter fuel, we will set out how we will fund that at the next fiscal event.

"We will set out how everything will be paid for at the budget in the autumn but it's important that everything that we do is funded, because that's how people know that we can afford it."

The Prime Minister's official spokesman told reporters: "As the Prime Minister has said, we will only take decisions that are affordable. He has made clear that we want to expand the number of pensioners who are eligible for the winter fuel payment.

"We will set out the details of that in due course. You have got the Chancellor's words from this morning. You have got the PM's words from earlier in the week that we want to set out that detail as soon as possible."