Winter Fuel Payment – Who Will Get It?
In our August livestream – Read Our Lips – we touched on some stats relevant to the recent cuts applied to Winter Fuel Payments.
Instead of all pensioners receiving the £100-£300 payments to help with the cost of energy over the winter, our new Labour Government has now decided that only those in receipt of some Benefits will get it. For most part that will be those receiving Pension Credit, so basically people whose State Pension is their only income.
Pension Credit tops up weekly income to £218.15 for a single person; or tops up joint weekly income to £332.95 for a couple. There are some further add-ons depending on circumstances. All the details are here. It’s also a Benefit that automatically opens the door to further Benefits so it’s worthwhile applying for.
To summarise with Pension Credit a single person is guaranteed £11,344 a year made up of State Pension + Pension Credit. A couple is guaranteed £17,313 a year. Plus whatever other help they can access through the Benefit system.
Not exactly what you’d call generous annual living allowance. But at least these people are now also guaranteed the winter fuel payment.
Pension Credit UpTake
You’d think everyone who is eligible for Pension Credit would apply. But in fact only six out of ten eligible people apply. Figures from DWP.
The Winter Fuel Payment will be automatically triggered by Pension Credit payments. This means that those 4 out of 10 pensioners who are actually eligible for the Winter Fuel Payment won’t get it because they are not receiving Pension Credits.
And ….
The UK Treasury benefits because these 4 out of 10 folk are not applying. The Treasury doesn’t have to pay out for the benefits not applied for. In 2022 that amounted to around £2billion of unclaimed Pension Credit. That’s a lot of families missing out on over £2000 a year.
Black Holes and Other Astronomical Terms
The UK’s economic Black Hole is hovering at around £22 Billion. Commons leader Lucy Powell went out to bat for her Chancellor and PM saying that the move was necessary as the economy could have crashed if the government had not found the savings. There might have been a run on the Pound!
Wow! Just think how much Winter Fuel Payments must costing!
By stopping payments to 10 million pensioners, the cut in Winter Fuel Payments will save around £1.4Billion. So it’s not going to fill in that back hole anytime soon.
And…. DWP says they will initiate a campaign aimed to increase uptake of Pensions Credit. If those 4 out of 10 people all claimed, the Treasury would lose the £2billion they currently retain.
So £2billion now being paid out out less £1.4Billion being saved = £600,000
Overall cutting the Fuel Payments could result in an extra £600,00 going OUT of the government’s coffers.
Well done Chancellor. That Black Hole just got bigger!
Listen to Read Our Lips. Or watch the Read Our Lips Livestream Video.
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