In a menu of UK public spending cuts full of unpalatable choices, axing universal welfare payments can look like an appetising option. The benefits are expensive and – inevitably – go to some people who do not need them, which seems a waste. Now, Reform, a free market think-tank, has held out the prospect of mouth-watering savings by removing welfare payments from the middle classes. That approach is too crude.

Existing universal benefits cannot all be treated the same way. Amid discussion of how quickly the state retirement age should rise to 70 years, the concessionary bus passes and winter fuel allowance available to anyone who reaches the age of 60 come from another world. But the strong case for raising the threshold for these payments to match the retirement age does not undermine the case for universal child benefit.