Following the announcement that financial support will no longer be automatically paid to pensioners to cover heating bills, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has launched a campaign to encourage low-income pensioners to claim any relevant income support.
As part of the initiative, the deputy Prime Minister and the Work and Pensions Secretary will write to local authorities asking them to “boost the take-up” of Pension Credit for residents in the area.
The DWP also said it would work to bring the administration of Pension Credit and Housing Benefits together “as soon as operationally possible”.
Liz Kendall, the Work and Pensions Secretary, said: “The £22bn black hole in the public finances we have inherited has required us to take difficult decisions, but I am determined to ensure low-income pensioners are supported.
“That’s why I urge any pensioner, or their loved ones, to check if they could get Pension Credit.”
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The new rules, which axed the winter cash for around 10 million pensioners, mean if you are above the state pension age, you can only receive the cash boost if you claim Pension Credit, Universal Credit, Income Support, income-related Employment or Support Allowance or Jobseeker’s Allowance.
There are 1.4 million pensioners who receive the benefit – which works out as an extra £3,900 per year on average – who will therefore receive the Winter Fuel Payment this year.
However, there are around 880,000 UK households eligible for Pension Credit who are currently not claiming the financial help they can, according to Government data.
Pension Credit eligibility
You will qualify for Pension Credit if you are a pensioner and you:
- Have a weekly earning of less than £218.15 if you’re a single person
- Have a weekly earning of below £332.95 if you’re in a couple
Not only will claiming for the income support ensure you receive it, but it can also open doors to more help for housing costs, council tax, and heating bills.
You can claim for Pension Credit up to four months before you reach the state pension age of 66 years old. There is also the opportunity to make a backdated claim for three months, but there is a deadline of 21 December to do so.
For Winter Fuel Payments, if you were born between 23 September 1944 and the same date in 1958, you’ll be eligible for the £200 tax-free payment, paid in October or November.
If you were born before 23 September 1944, you’ll receive £300.
‘It won’t be enough to achieve dramatic increase’
Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, said while she is “delighted” the Government is engaging with low-income pensioners, “in all honesty we do not believe it will not be enough to achieve the dramatic increase in Pension Credit take-up that’s needed”.
Abrahams noted “the short time available for pensioners to secure their entitlement to Winter Fuel Payment before the weather chills.”
She continued: “Plus, however successful this exercise turns out to be – hopefully very – there will still be over a million older people set to suffer real hardship as a result of the decision to means-test Winter Fuel Payment, since they are ineligible for Pension Credit as their meagre incomes are just a little too high. This is why we have urged the Government to think again.
“We base our view on the facts. Pension Credit take up stands at 63% on the latest available figures and has not exceeded 66% for a decade or more, even in the years following the then Government’s decision to transfer responsibility for free TV licences to the BBC in 2015, after which this universal benefit was means-tested, with Pension Credit again made the qualifying benefit. There was massive publicity about the change at the time and Pension Credit take-up did indeed rise, but not by very much.”
The charity launched a petition against the policy a week after the Government’s decision, which 420,000 people have signed so far.
Abrahams added: “An additional factor we are conscious of is that time is now very short. The last date for claiming Pension Credit in time to secure your Winter Fuel Payment this winter is 21 December, just over four months away – not very long to tackle this long-standing and deep-seated problem of low take-up.
“However tough the economic choices the Government faces may be, surely there has to be a better way than adopting a policy that we fear is set to further impoverish a substantial group of pensioners on low incomes this winter, potentially putting their health as well as their financial wellbeing at risk.”
