Winter Fuel Payments used to be awarded to everyone over state pension age, but now you must also be in receipt of certain means-tested benefits
If you’ve yet to receive your Winter Fuel Payment, you’ll be able to report it as missing from later this month.
Winter Fuel Payments used to be awarded to everyone over state pension age, but now you must also be in receipt of certain means-tested benefits to get this extra help, which is worth up to £300. Some of the benefits that qualify you for the Winter Fuel Payment include Pension Credit and Universal Credit.
Most people who are entitled to this payment are paid in November and December, but it has been reported there are delays in issuing the cash following a massive backlog of Pension Credit applications. There was a backlog of 90,000 unprocessed claims as of mid-November, with around 9,000 being processed each week, according to latest official figures. The DWP told the BBC it has 500 extra members of staff to process applications.
If you still haven’t received your Winter Fuel Payment by January 29, and you believe you’re eligible, then you’ll be able to contact the Winter Fuel Payment Centre from this date. To get a Winter Fuel Payment this year, you must have been born before September 23, 1958 and claiming one of the following benefits between September 16 and September 22, 2024:
You won’t be eligible for a Winter Fuel Payment if you lived in a care home for the whole time from June 24 to September 22, 2024. You can still be eligible if you live in a care home on a temporary basis, which is less than 13 weeks by the end of the qualifying period.
You also won’t be eligible if you’ve been in hospital getting free treatment for more than a year, if you needed permission to enter the UK and your granted leave says that you cannot claim public funds, or if you are in prison for the whole of the week of September 16 to September 22, 2024.
If you live abroad, you’ll need to make a claim for a Winter Fuel Payment You must have moved to an eligible EEA country or Switzerland before December 31, 2020 and be covered by the Withdrawal Agreement, to get a Winter Fuel Payment. You must also have a genuine and sufficient link to the UK.