You won't get DWP £300 winter fuel payment if this rule applies to you
You won't get DWP £300 winter fuel payment if this rule applies to you
The winter fuel payment will be made automatically this winter. Here's everything you need to know about the changes and who will qualify for the payment and who won't and how that works
More people will get the winter fuel payment than previously thought
(Image: Matthew Horwood )
In a significant policy reversal, millions of individuals will receive a winter fuel payment this year. It was confirmed on Monday, June 9, that pensioners earning £35,000 or less would receive a payment of up to £300 later this year.
The announcement partially rolled back a contentious policy implemented last year that introduced means-testing for the winter fuel payment. This change drastically reduced the number of pensioners receiving the aid from 11.4 million to approximately 1.5 million.
The payment, typically dispatched in November or December to assist with fuel expenses during the colder months, had previously been automatic.
The changes announced this week have been attributed to the Labour Party's reduced public support following its general election triumph. For money-saving tips, sign up to our Money newsletter here
Earlier this year, the government partially reversed its stance, confirming that more people would be eligible for the payment, but did not provide additional details until now. Under the revised rules, around nine million individuals will qualify for the payment at a cost of £1.25bn.
This expenditure is anticipated to be offset by reclaiming the payment from higher-income pensioners through HMRC, reports Wales Online.
Article continues below
Who does and doesn't benefit under the new rules?
The changes will enable all pensioners in England and Wales with an annual income of £35,000 or less to receive a winter fuel payment. But if you earn more than this - you will still receive the payment but it will be clawed back by the Government by another method.
You can find out more about what the rules mean for couples here.
This change extends eligibility to the vast majority of pensioners, with around nine million or over three-quarters set to benefit, according to ministers' statements on Monday, June 9.
What do you need to do?
There's no need for any action on your part; if you're eligible, the payment will be automatically made to you this winter. For those with incomes above the threshold, you will still get the payment but it will be automatically reclaimed by HMRC without any required intervention.
The automatic payment this winter will be £200 per household, or £300 for households with someone aged over 80. Additionally, over 12 million pensioners throughout the UK will gain from the Triple Lock, which promises a State Pension increase of up to £1,900 during this parliament.
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, said earlier this week: "Targeting Winter Fuel Payments was a tough decision, but the right decision because of the inheritance we had been left by the previous government. It is also right that we continue to means-test this payment so that it is targeted and fair, rather than restoring eligibility to everyone including the wealthiest.
Article continues below
"But we have now acted to expand the eligibility of the Winter Fuel Payment so no pensioner on a lower income will miss out. This will mean over three quarters of pensioners receiving the payment in England and Wales later this winter."
Those pensioners who prefer to opt out and decline the payment entirely will be accommodated, with further details forthcoming.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Inside the ‘forgotten' estate where £20m of Labour funding promises to bring a change in fortune
A rumpled security guard walks out of the sliding entrance doors of a Morrisons supermarket in southern Bristol. The worker looks up at the cloudy sky, then leans back against the railings and lights a rolled-up cigarette. 'Have you seen the news?' a shopper eagerly asks. 'No,' signals the guard with a shake of the head. 'We're going to be getting twenty million quid,' declares the customer, smiling from ear to ear. Hartcliffe is more than 120 miles from Westminster, but news that the post-war housing estate is one of 25 'trailblazer neighbourhoods ' announced in Chancellor Rachel Reeves ' spending review is already on everyone's lips. The details of the plan are vague. Four paragraphs in the published policy paper state that each neighbourhood will get up to £20m funding for community-led regeneration, as well as a 'direct link' to Whitehall for investment. The term 'trailblazer' suggests a new idea. Although, the Tories' post-Brexit Levelling Up Fund promised - and arguably failed - something similar. And as Labour wrestles against a surge in support for Nigel Farage 's Reform UK in working-class areas amid unpopular reforms to the welfare system, critics could argue there are wider goals for Sir Keir Starmer here. But any political pessimism fails to dampen the spirits in Hartcliffe on a soggy Thursday morning, less than 24 hours after the announcement. 'I was like 'wow' you don't very often see things like that for people like us,' says mother-of-two Kirsty Green, who recently took over the management of Hartcliffe Community Centre, a short five-minute walk from the Morrisons supermarket. The shabby-looking centre was built through a community fundraiser not long after the estate opened in the 1950s - and it's now showing its age. 'Like everything here, we don't get nothing so we have to find a way ourselves,' says Ms Green, who runs the venue with her sister-in-law Leanne Heyward. 'This is the first time I think I've seen we've got money like this - it's amazing because we are always left behind. 'Because we've never had a nice reputation, the money seems to always to go elsewhere.' The cash promised by Labour is something the centre would like to get a slice of, says Ms Green, who points toward three plastic buckets collecting water dripping through holes in the roof in one of the three rooms inside. 'There's so much potential here for the community, but as you can see, we need the money,' says Ms Green, who has plans for a children's holiday club and a cinema. Across the main road and down a street lined with discoloured concrete homes is the South Bristol Methodist Church. In the main hall, a weekly morning Coffee Time is taking place. Three women and a man sit around a set-up table, drinking from glass cups and sharing a packet of digestive biscuits. It's usually busier, but the rain has kept people at home. 'We've just been talking about the news,' says Charlotte Gardiner, an 85-year-old pensioner, when asked about the funding announcement. 'It's about time we're getting something - we've been neglected and forgotten from the moment the last brick was laid on this estate.' Mrs Gardiner was aged 10 when she arrived here with her parents. The new estate was initially sold by planners as a ' Garden City ' primed to get a cinema, swimming pool and five youth clubs - but the blueprint was scaled back through changes in governance. Even the homes were said to have been built to a lesser standard than first designed. Of the five promised, three youth clubs opened, with just one remaining today. A swimming pool and cinema were never built. Donna Webster, 77, a retired community transport driver, says a lack of investment has led to problems faced on the estate today. Hartcliffe, and neighbouring Withywood, are in the top 10 per cent of most deprived areas in the country, with 39 per cent of children living in poverty. Crime levels are high, with 73 per cent of people recently telling a city council survey that antisocial behaviour was a problem. Ms Webster says: 'The money is good news, but I worry it'll quickly be spent on something that won't make any difference.' Former city councillor Paul Smith wrote in his book Hartcliffe Betrayed that, once built, the area, located some five miles from Bristol city centre, became 'Bristol's largest cul-de-sac... on the edge, out of sight and often out of mind'. His book explores the dangers of rapid house-building projects - lessons that can be learned today as Labour forges ahead with its ambitious target for 1.5m new homes within five years. A former long-time resident of Hartcliffe, Mr Smith warns £20m 'won't touch the sides' in Hartcliffe, but hopes it will provide a platform for future investment in facilities and improved housing. 'I'm pleased Hartcliffe has got the money,' he says. 'The area really desperately needs it, and it needs to make sure it is very wisely spent. I'm aware that £20m can disappear really quickly, and so it's really important it's used to make lasting change and it involves people in the area who deserve this.' Back at Morrisons, Labour councillor Kerry Bailes sits finishing a coffee in the half-empty cafe. She, like everyone else, first found out about the announcement through Ms Reeves' spending review. 'It's fantastic news,' she says. 'As someone who has lived here all my life, I know, as a community, we feel left behind and used to having things forced on to us with no control. This is about giving control to the community on how they want the money to be spent.' Outside the store again, as rain continues to lash down, a CCTV van parks up at the entrance, a response to shoplifting and years of antisocial behaviour. Nearby, the shut-down council rent office stands like an ugly fortress, while shutters are down on an empty unit along a short row of shops featuring a betting shop, bakery and tanning salon. A lack of major investment is clear, but finally, residents have good news to talk about. Time will only tell if government promises can match Hartcliffe's undoubted strong community spirit and resilience.
Scottish Sun
2 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
Major bar & restaurant chain to shut beloved branch in heart of seaside resort TODAY leaving punters ‘gutted'
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) A MAJOR bar and restaurant chain will be shutting a beloved branch today in the heart of a popular seaside town. The eatery is known for its incredible brunch and huge range of cocktails, leaving fans 'gutted' when they heard about its closure. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 3 The chain is known for its amazing brunches Credit: Slug and Lettuce 3 The Slug and Lettuce in Cornwall will be closing its doors for good Credit: Google 3 The chain has closed several other stores in recent years Credit: Slug and Lettuce The Slug and Lettuce has been serving customers since 1985 and, over the years, has become one of Britain's leading pub chains. However, the company shocked fans when it announced that it would be closing its beloved Newquay, Cornwall, branch. Announcing the sad news on Facebook, a spokesperson for the pub wrote: 'Thank you, and farewell. 'After an amazing journey, Slug and Lettuce Newquay is closing its doors on Saturday, June 14. 'We've loved every laugh, every cocktail and every glittery moment shared with you all. 'Thank you for being part of the sun and making it so special. 'Happy Memories.' The bar will be serving its last punters on June 14, before putting its shutters down for good. Fans flooded the comment section with their favourite stories from their visits to the pub. One said: 'Oh no, this is really sad. We had a fab bottomless brunch for my hen do. Feel for all the staff.' Poundland to be sold for JUST £1 as frontrunner for shock takeover is revealed after wave of store closures Another punter said that they were 'gutted' after hearing the news. The brand has been rocked by closures over recent years, having been forced to shut some of its most popular stores. Branches in Huddersfield, Worthing and Brentwood have all closed as fellow pub chains also battle with soaring operating costs. The Slug and Lettuce has been approached for comment by The Sun. A wave of closures has rocked the high street, with even high end restaurants feeling the pinch. The glamorous French restaurant La Dame de Pic closed for good earlier this year, with Kora by Tom Kitchen also putting the shutters down. Some chains have blamed Rachel Reeves' decision to raise National Insurance contributions, though the Chancellor has insisted that her actions were necessary to stabilise the economy. Other restaurants, like La Goccia in Covent Garden, said that 'covid' and 'Brexit' has made it impossible to hire qualified staff - forcing them to close.
The Guardian
3 hours ago
- The Guardian
There hasn't been a ‘big chancellor' since Osborne: IFS chief gives final mark
'In my lifetime, who have been the big chancellors?' says Paul Johnson, as he prepares to hang up his spreadsheets as the director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies. 'You've had Healey, Lawson, Clarke, Brown. Arguably Osborne. We haven't had one since then. They're the long-lasting ones.' The fact that Rachel Reeves is not on that list will elicit no surprise in No 11, where Johnson is seen as a nitpicking critic, naive about the constraints of politics. Supremely confident and resolutely wonkish, throughout his 14 years at the top of the IFS thinktank the 58-year-old economist has exuded a baffled frustration at the standard of political debate about fiscal policy. He is critical of George Osborne's deep spending cuts, which had 'really negative long-term effects' on some public services. But he praises the former Tory chancellor's single-mindedness. 'You knew where he was coming from, because he had a pretty clear idea on the fiscal side, at least: we're doing austerity, we're bringing the size of the state back down to where it was pre-financial crisis and we're largely doing that through spending cuts.' By contrast, he expresses exasperation with Labour's partial U-turn on the winter fuel allowance – though he admits the pressure to do so was external. 'I don't think people have any sense of scale,' Johnson says. 'This was partly the fault of the government, of course, but this was a small thing, a billion pounds or so, which is now going to make virtually no savings at all.' Reeves took the public by surprise when she announced the winter fuel cut, blaming what she claimed was a £22bn hole in the public finances. Johnson, once a Treasury civil servant himself, concedes there is some information the chancellor could not have known about before Labour came to power. For example, the Home Office failed to account properly for spending on asylum seekers – but, he argues, both major parties were well aware there was a reckoning coming. 'We said that all the way through the last election. And the parties just said, 'no, no, no, no'. Until after the election. When they suddenly made up – or partly made up – 'oh, look, we've discovered a black hole. We never knew anything about this.' So it's really frustrating.' Johnson reserves his strongest condemnation for Reform UK and the Green party, whose approach to fiscal policy during the last election he decries as 'outrageous'. 'I do put Reform and the Greens in exactly the same bucket here. Not just to be politically balanced, but because they are very, very similar, in the sense that Reform had, I can't remember, £100bn, £150bn of tax cuts and no spending cuts. They just said: 'We'll just get some efficiencies.' And then the Greens had massive unfunded spending increases.' And Johnson sees this unwillingness to face reality as increasingly worrying, given the pressures on spending are only likely to increase. 'If you look over the next five to 10 years, what have we got coming down the line? We've got at least £20bn on defence spending, probably. Continued increases in health spending. Huge pressures on social care. Pension spending. You're going to lose £30bn of revenue from taxing petrol. You put all of that together and you've got a really big challenge.' Labour has promised not to increase the main revenue raisers, including income tax, VAT and national insurance. But Johnson is sceptical that much more can be raised from the wealthy and insists moderate earners will eventually have to pay more, unless spending is slashed. 'There's a choice here. You can stop all sorts of handouts to pensioners, and you could ration some of the things that you get on the NHS. You could have less focus on some aspects of the education system. But if you want all of those things, then you'll probably going to have to pay more tax,' he says. Surrounded by boxes in his utilitarian office in Bloomsbury, Johnson is preparing for a fresh start. He will shortly take up a post as provost of Queen's College at Oxford. Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion Pondering how he will feel when Reeves delivers her second budget, and he is not there to deliver his familiar acerbic commentary, he says: 'It's going to be very weird in the autumn. I'll probably be sat in a committee meeting, and I will definitely miss it. It's going to be quite hard. I will miss the drama, the sense of being slightly on the inside, sort of explaining things to the public.' Successive chancellors – Johnson has marked the homework of eight – have waited with trepidation for the IFS's assessment of their plans. Jeremy Hunt, who held the post from October 2022 to July last year, said: 'Paul was often the swing vote as to whether a budget unravelled. You never really relax until after the IFS verdict.' Some leftwing economists accuse him of being too sympathetic to austerity. 'I find it extraordinary how little accountability has been applied to the IFS, and Johnson in particular,' says James Meadway, who advised the former shadow chancellor John McDonnell and hosts the Macrodose podcast. Whether his influence has been for good or ill, the era of economic policy Johnson has witnessed close up has certainly not been auspicious. He arrived in post in 2011, when the scars of the global financial crisis were still visible. Fresh shocks followed from the Brexit referendum, the Covid crisis and the surge in energy costs after Russia's invasion of Ukraine – coinciding with Kwazi Kwarteng's brief tenure in No 11. He says the two referendums on his watch – Brexit, and before that, Scottish independence in 2014 – were the hardest period for the IFS, because the institution took a clear view on the fiscal implications of the decisions, causing it to be accused of partisanship. 'We are narrowly economic. And so, in both cases, the economic and fiscal issues, I think were perfectly straightforward. But I think it's perfectly reasonable to have to balance them against other things,' he says. 'I think there is a perfectly good case for Brexit from a point of view of sovereignty and controlling your borders and so on, but we know that over the short and medium run, it's going to have a negative economic effect. Of course it is.' As far as today's government is concerned, he detects an unwillingness to confront the public with unavoidable tradeoffs. Asked whether he is optimistic about the future for fiscal policy, as he heads off for a quieter life, Johnson says: 'I have moments of optimism. I had a moment of optimism at the Labour party conference last year when Keir Starmer basically stood up and said: 'There are tradeoffs here and, you know, we want growth and if that means a road through your back garden, tough.' And I thought here's a prime minister who's actually talking about tradeoffs. It's been less obvious since then.' Returning to the winter fuel debacle, the eternally bemused Johnson says: 'They [ministers] feel pushed by us, the electorate. Now, is that their fault for not selling it properly? Did they announce it at the wrong time? Is it the electorate's fault for not being serious? Is it just a reflection of our fractured country? I don't know, but it's quite hard to be optimistic, because you do think, 'if you can't do that, what the hell can you do?''
