Tens of thousands of pensioners might not get winter fuel payment by Christmas as DWP struggles to deal with huge backlog_Nhy
Tens of thousands of elderly people could face a stark choice between heating and eating this Christmas after changes to the rules surrounding winter fuel payments introduced by Rachel Reeves created a huge backlog of claims.
The chancellor announced this summer that claims for the allowance, which is intended to help pensioners with energy bills and is worth up to £300, would be largely limited to people eligible for pension credit.
The change resulted in a surge of pension credit claims that has overwhelmed Whitehall, creating a pile-up of 91,075 unprocessed applications as of 18 November, according to Emma Reynolds, the pensions minister.
Figures released by the Department for Work and Pensions put the number closer to 150,000, however.
To deal with a backlog that is growing daily, the DWP has put 500 extra staff in place, but the risk remains that tens of thousands of claims will remain outstanding heading into the new year.
Reeves curbed winter fuel payments in July, announcing that the allowance, previously available to all pensioners, would become means-tested.
About 10 million people who were eligible for the allowance were disqualified at a stroke under the rule change, which is is expected to save the Treasury £1.4 billion.
While the chancellor has defended the move as ‘necessary and urgent’, it has sparked a huge backlash among Labour MPs, 52 of whom abstained when a motion to block the change was put to the vote in September.
Protesters gathered outside Parliament in October for a demonstration, organised by the Unite union, at which they demanded the reversal of changes to winter fuel allowance eligibility
The prime minister Sir Keir Starmer, left, and Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, have come under fire over the stricter eligibility criteria for winter fuel payments
Winter fuel allowance protesters are seen outside Parliament in October. The government has reframed the previously universal scheme to make it means-tested
‘The poorest pensioners in our society are those who are eligible for the pension credit but don’t claim it, or are just a few pounds above the threshold and miss out on passported support,’ Labour backbencher Duncan-Jordan, MP for Poole, said in the House of Commons this week.
‘Means testing by its very nature is simply not the best way to get help to those who need it most, so will the minister reconsider the recent decision to means-test the winter fuel allowance?’
But Reynolds ruled out such a move, echoing previous pronouncements from Reeves about the need to curb public spending.
‘We won’t reconsider that decision because in a very tight fiscal environment when we inherited a £22bn black hole from the party opposite, we had to take some very tough decisions,’ Reynolds replied.
Official statistics provided by the DWP show that, before Reeves announced the change to winter fuel allowance eligibility on 29 July, an average of 3,800 people a week applied for pension credit.
In the weeks since, that number has risen to 9,400, with pensioners encouraged to claim by charities and the government.
The window to apply in time to claim the winter fuel allowance remains open until 11.59pm on Saturday.
Pension credit, a means-tested benefit worth an average of £3,900 a year, is designed to help people above the state pension age with everyday living costs.
Unions have attacked the government for cutting the winter fuel allowance while ‘leaving the super-rich untouched’
While less than half of people who apply are approved, even those who are successful may not receive any money until as late as March, based on the current processing time for applications.
‘Over a million pensioners will still receive the winter fuel payment, and our drive to boost pension credit take-up has seen applications more than double, with over 40,000 more pensioners now receiving it, as well as the winter fuel payment,’ said government spokesperson.
‘We have deployed additional staff to support processing applications, seeing a 51% increase in the number of cleared claims since the chancellor’s announcement.’
The furore over winter fuel payments adds to the pressure facing the government over its refusal to pay compensation to millions of women born in the 1950s who lost out because of a change to the state pension age two decades ago.
Sir Keir Starmer has faced accusations of ‘historic injustice’ and hypocrisy from MPs amid anger that, having supported ‘Waspi’ campaigners – Women Against State Pension Inequality – while in opposition, the prime minister and other senior Labour figures appear to have performed a U-turn.
In 2022, Starmer signed a pledge calling for the women affected to receive ‘fair and fast’ compensation, and last year he reiterated his apparent solidarity with their cause.
‘We’ve met many of these women and campaigners, said Starmer, ‘and our hearts go out to them. They’ve been put in an awful position, a position they shouldn’t be put in. It’s a huge injustice.’
On Monday, however, the prime minister said the government could not afford to make good on recommendations that the 3 million women affected should receive roughly £3,000 each, a move that that would cost an estimated £10.5 billion.
Angela Madden, the Waspi chair, branded the decision an ‘insult’, while Labour MP Brian Leishman said he was ‘appalled’ by the decision.
