Winter Fuel Allowance and Pension Credit

SUPPORTING PENSIONERS TO CLAIM PENSION CREDIT
I have been contacted by constituents about the reallocation of the Winter Fuel Allowance to those pensioners who need it most and I wanted to set out the reasons for this decision.

With the new Government, we have set out clear priorities: restoring economic stability, boosting economic growth and rebuilding our public services. We have also said we will be open and honest with the public to rebuild trust that politics can be a force for good.

As the Chancellor set out in her statement to Parliament, we face the worst inheritance since the Second World War. Given the dire state of the public finances, this Government must take difficult decisions to fix the foundations of our economy and set Britain on a better course.

So the Chancellor announced that pensioners who are not on Pension Credit will no longer receive Winter Fuel Payments from this year onwards.

We will continue to provide Winter Fuel Payments worth £200 to households receiving Pension Credit, or £300 for households in receipt of Pension Credit with someone aged over 80.

Despite this very difficult decision, we are determined to protect the poorest pensioners and target support to those in greatest need. Therefore we will begin a new drive to increase take-up of Pension Credit. This Government wants everyone eligible for Pension Credit to apply for it and get the additional help it provides. In order to achieve this we will be taking three key steps.

First, we will work urgently with all relevant partners including charities and local councils to increase Pension Credit take-up including charity partners who support older people, to encourage them to claim where eligible.

Second, the DWP’s own campaign on increasing Pension Credit uptake will now proceed at pace and I support this campaign to ensure the lowest income pensioners know their rights and entitlements.

Third, we will finally deliver the commitment to merge Housing Benefit and Pension Credit, as we know too many people in receipt of Housing Benefit are also likely to be eligible for Pension Credit but not claiming. This merger was first promised in 2011, for delivery in 2017, but then delayed many times, the last time at the Autumn Statement in 2022, for delivery in 2028. Working with the Treasury, we will speed up the process to merge and will return with full details in the Budget later this year.

Resources are being mobilised to meet the additional demand and ensure as many eligible pensioners as possible receive their entitlement. 

These steps come alongside the wider support this Government is providing to Britain’s pensioners: protecting the pensions triple lock over the next five years, as we promised in our manifesto; helping pensioners through our Warm Homes Plan, which will support investment in insulation and low carbon heating, upgrading millions of homes over this Parliament; cutting waiting times in the NHS which will help many pensioners currently waiting in pain and discomfort for treatment; and delivering the economic stability which is so crucial for pensioners.

The spending decisions this Government has made are difficult and not ones we wanted or expected to make. But they are vital to begin fixing the foundations of our economy, restoring economic stability and rebuilding our public services on which everyone – including Britain’s pensioners – depend.