Roughly 880,000 older Brits who are getting their pension are missing out on a simple cash boost that could be worth up to £3900 annually. This benefit, known as Pension Credit, has been historically under-claimed from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), but recent weeks have seen a surge in claimants.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has removed the Winter Fuel Payment for all but the poorest pensioners (Image: Handout)
The number of individuals applying for this benefit, which can supplement your monthly income to a minimum level, has soared following Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ decision to scrap the universal Winter Fuel Payment. The £300 seasonal cash payment will now only be given to those receiving Pension Credit, as the new Labour government attempts to rectify an inherited £22 billion “hole in the public finances.”
This move has triggered a significant increase in claimants for the benefit, which the DWP has long struggled to encourage low-income pensioners to utilise. In the five weeks following Reeves’ announcement, the number of poorer pensioners applying for the benefit has more than doubled, with 38,500 new applications.
This signifies a 115 per cent rise in potential claimants, many of whom will receive weekly pension payments below £218.15 if they are single, or £332.95 for couples. This marks a significant shift for the benefit that Martin Lewis frequently refers to as “chronically under-claimed.”
Martin Lewis has long campaigned for pensioners to take up ‘chronically under-claimed’ Pension Credit (Image: ITV)
The personal finance expert has strongly encouraged those on low incomes and pensioners to contact the Pension Credit helpline for eligibility assessment, adding that: “You will not be told off for asking if you are due Pension Credit. If you’re not due Pension Credit, they’ll just tell you.”
After the Chancellor’s announcement on July 29 that only older Britons receiving Pension Credit would be granted the Winter Fuel Payment, there was a surge in claims for the benefit rocketing weekly applications from 3,500 to a staggering 7,900.
Acknowledging fiscal pressures, a government spokesperson said: “Given the dire state of the public finances we have inherited, it’s right that we target support to those who need it most.”
You will need to be receiving the Pension Credit income top-up to claim the £300 Winter Fuel Payment from now on (Image: Stock image)
They added, “Over a million pensioners will continue to receive the winter fuel payment, while many others will also benefit from the £150 warm home discount from October to help with their energy bills over winter.
“We are seeing increased demand in pension credit claims and continue to urge pensioners to check their eligibility to make sure as many people in need can access this support.”
The DWP has also released the data for the five weeks before and after the Winter Fuel Payment cut, showing that uptake of the historically under-claimed benefit has remained high after the announcement. The figures were rounded by the department.
| June 24 | 3,200 |
| July 1 | 3,800 |
| July 8 | 4,100 |
| July 15 | 3,300 |
| July 22 | 3,500 |
| July 29 | 7,900 |
| August 5 | 7,300 |
| August 12 | 5,900 |
| August 19 | 8,400 |
| August 26 | 9,000 |
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Chancellor faces mutiny amid growing unrest at ‘cruel’ OAP winter cash grab
Rachel Reeves is coming under mounting pressure to reverse the “cruel decision” banning OAPs from getting cold weather cash.
The Chancellor is facing revolt among Labour MPs amid universal outcry at a raid that will see 10 million pensioners surviving on £13,000 a year denied a helping hand.
A growing number are set to vote against the Government afterTuesday’s Commons debate on axing the annual Winter Fuel Payment.
It comes as an Age UK petition demanding a U-turn topped 500,000 signatures.
Charity director Caroline Abrahams said: “Cutting the Winter Fuel Payment with virtually no notice and no compensatory measures to protect poor and vulnerable pensioners, is the wrong policy decision.
“The Government should think again.”
Household energy bills are set to rise 10% from October 1, and stay high across winter, leaving average annual gas and electricity costs of £1,717 unaffordable for millions.
The charity says the looming national emergency is set to indiscriminately target those least able to help themselves including those on low incomes who just miss out on Pension Credit, those with high energy needs because of disability or illness, and the almost 1 million who do not receive Pension Credit for which they are eligible.
Age UK says the Government ‘should think again’ saying axing cold weather payments will cause misery (Image: Age UK)
Ms Abrahams added: “We know affluent older people won’t miss it, but for their counterparts who are barely scraping by, this loss of £200 or £300 will be a real body blow.
“For them, the decision already spells deep anxiety about how they will afford to keep their home warm, as well as putting food on the table.
“In our experience, most are determined not to go into debt and make every possible sacrifice to avoid it, even if it means spending long periods in bed to stay warm, or eating sandwiches rather than hot meals. If fit enough they may ride public transport or go to the local library to feel their heat – but of course, in the end they will still return to a cold home. In short, life offers them very little to look forward to.”
The injustice has seen a growing revolt among Labour MPs with newly-elected Neil Duncan-Jordan, who used to work for the National Pensioners Convention, warning the cash grab was being imposed “without prior consolation or without an impact assessment, not with sufficient time to put in place a proper and effective take-up campaign for Pension Credit”.
Demanding an end to the purge, he said: “Colder homes make older people more susceptible to poor health, including hypothermia, respiratory and circulatory disease.”
The annual cash payment, a lump sum introduced by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown to all pensioners since 1997, will be officially scrapped on September 16 with only those subject to and passing a humiliating means-test qualifying.
Only those in receipt of Pension Credit – which 900,000 OAPs are too proud to claim – or certain other benefits will be entitled to cash.
For them the allowance remains unchanged at £200 for those aged between 66 and 79 and £300 for those over 80.
But the number entitled to the one-off payment helping them cover costs through the coldest months of the year will plummet from 11.4 million to 1.5 million.
It will save £1.5 billion against the £10 billion needed to fund public sector pay rises.
The cash grab will leave 10 million pensioners, already existing on meagre incomes, petrified about keeping warm without turning the heating on.
Axing Winter Fuel Payments will be debated and voted on in the Commons on Tuesday (Image: Getty)
Labour MP Rachel Maskell said: “The mitigation put in by the Government is insufficient. We have to go back to why Gordon Brown introduced this. He was emphatic that he didn’t want people to go cold over winter. We absolutely should uphold those values.”
Clive Lewis, a candidate for Labour leader in the party’s 2020 election, said: “Cutting the Winter Fuel Allowance is really going to put a lot of the pensioners into real hardship and possibly worse. The universal nature of this benefit is its strength. There is no ‘cliff-edge’.”
Other Labour MPs among around 15 set to vote against the Government include Jon Trickett, Nadia Whittome, Kim Johnson, Ian Lavery, and Kate Osborne.
Both the Treasury and the Department for Work and Pensions [DWP] have refused to say whether any impact assessment detailing the methodology behind the decision has been carried out, meaning ministers are unaware of the devastating impact the cash grab will have.
Regulations axing the payment will come into force on September 16 but will not be examined by the Social Security Advisory Committee, which is legally required to consider benefit regulations, usually in advance of them being laid before Parliament, because Labour has deemed the cash cull “urgent” which means scrutiny is retrospective.
Days after winning the July 4 General election, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer suspended seven MPs after they rebelled and backed an amendment to scrap the two-child benefit limit.
On Tuesday he faces another Commons humiliation as anger grows at a decision – as yet officially unjustified – to remove the cold weather cash.
The Tories said Labour had been “dragged” to the Commons to hold a vote on a “cruel decision” after resisting scrutiny of its plan.
Martin Lewis, founder of MoneySavingExpert.com, said: “Many pensioners eke out the Winter Fuel Payments to allow them to keep some heating on through the cold months. While there’s an argument for ending its universality due to tight national finances, it’s being squeezed to too narrow a group – just those on benefits and Pension Credit. Yet again, those just above the thresholds will be hardest hit.”
Baroness Ros Altmann, 68, the cross-bench Peer whose appointment as the UK’s first Older People’s Tsar by former PM David Cameron was blocked by the DWP in 2015, said: “The Government must put this decision on hold pending a proper impact assessment and mitigation measures.
“At the very least this decision should be delayed to make proper assessments of the potential hardship and work out mitigations carefully. It is only fair to warn people and also to decide how to properly target help that is vital to so many properly.
“Those pensioners I am most worried about are those who have already cut their spending to the bone, who live in energy inefficient homes, who spend most of their time at home, and have no way of replacing this lost money as energy bills rise. All they can do is turn down or turn off the heating.
“Those of us living comfortably forget about the reality of life for so many proud but frail older citizens. These pensioners have grown up making do with what they have and never wanting to be in debt. “Those in their 80s and 90s have suddenly had £300 snatched away from them without warning. Obviously this is causing real distress.”
A Government spokesman said: “We are urging pensioners to come forward and check their eligibility for Pension Credit to ensure as many people in need as possible have access to this support.”
