Date set for when £300 DWP Winter Fuel Payment will arrive in accounts
The Department for Work and Pensions has released further details about this year's Winter Fuel Payment for pensioners. This grant, which can be up to £300, is designed to assist the elderly with their heating costs. The DWP has announced that pensioners wishing to claim this year's payment can do so by post from September 15 and over the phone from October 15.
The Government stresses that Winter Fuel Payments will be automatically distributed to approximately nine million individuals in England and Wales, though some may need to apply. Pensioners born before 22 September 1959 will receive between £100 and £300 during November and December, but they will be notified by letter beforehand detailing exactly how much they will get.
The GOV.UK website specifies two particular groups of people who may need to claim the money, but it's crucial to note that this can only be done by post or over the phone.
It's important to be aware that if you receive a text or an email instructing you to claim by clicking on a link or dialling a number, it's a scam.
The DWP has already issued warnings via social media about these fraudulent messages, urging pensioners to report them, reports the Daily Record.
Check if you need to make a claim
The DWP states that most people will automatically receive the Winter Fuel Payment if they are eligible during the qualifying week, which is 15 - 21 September 2025. You don't need to claim if you receive any of the following:
State Pension
Pension Credit
Universal Credit
Attendance Allowance
Personal Independence Payment (PIP)
Carer's Allowance
Disability Living Allowance (DLA)
Income Support
income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
Income-based Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA)
awards from the War Pensions Scheme
Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit
Incapacity Benefit
Industrial Death Benefit
You'll need to put in a claim if any of the following conditions apply:
you've not had the Winter Fuel Payment before
you've deferred your State Pension since your last Winter Fuel Payment
If your taxable income exceeds £35,000, HMRC will claw back your Winter Fuel Payment via the tax system. If you'd rather not receive it, you can choose to opt out of the Winter Fuel Payment.
Eligible individuals will receive a letter around October or November detailing the amount they're due to get. The majority of those eligible should expect payment in November or December 2025.
How to claim
Here's how you can claim your Winter Fuel Payment:
post - from September 15, 2025
phone - from October 13, 2025
The cut-off date for winter 2025 to 2026 claims is March 31, 2026. Comprehensive instructions on how to claim by post or phone are available on GOV.UK.
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Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Will I lose the Winter Fuel Payment if I make a pension withdrawal to replace my 'clapped out' car?
I read your article about the Winter Fuel Payment and the HMRC limit of £35,000. I have a small private pension plus my state pension. I now need to draw a lump sum of money from my pension pot, which I built up for nine years during self employment, to replace my 'clapped out' car. This could take me over the £35,000 income for the year. Do I now need to return my Winter Fuel Payment? We can't really afford to take out a loan for the car, nor would we want to with sufficient funds sitting in my pension pot. Am I now to be punished once again for putting things in place for my old age? Steve Webb replies: If your total income from your state pension, regular private pensions and lump sum pension withdrawal takes you over the £35,000 limit, then yes, your extra tax bill next year will wipe out the value of your share of this year's Winter Fuel Payment. However, it is worth remembering that, assuming you and your partner are under 80 and not receiving benefits, you are probably each receiving an equal share of the total £200 Winter Fuel Payment. It is only your share (typically £100) which is at stake if your income goes above £35,000, rather than the total household payment. There are some further aspects of this which might be worth bearing in mind. The first is that what affects your WFP is your individual income, not the combined income of you and your spouse or partner. This means that if your partner had access to a pension pot or other savings and could do this without taking their income above the £35,000 limit, then the car could be purchased without affecting the payment at all. Alternatively, if your partner was able to make some contribution to the car, but not the full amount, another option would be for you to chip in by taking a smaller pension withdrawal to 'mop up' any spare income between your current annual figure and the £35,000 limit. You could do this without affecting your WFP entitlement. Depending on the state of your 'clapped out' car, another angle to think about is whether you could hold on until the end of this tax year. If so, you could take your withdrawal in two lumps, one before 6 April 2026 and one afterwards. Provided each individual lump kept you within the limit, then your WFP would be unaffected. How do you send back a Winter Fuel Payment? Turning now to your comment about 'returning' your WFP, it's worth being clear how the process will work from this winter onwards. Under the new system, everyone who is over state pension age should be paid a WFP in full, regardless of their income. HMRC will then identify at the end of the year those individuals who had income over £35,000 and will add an amount to their tax bill to offset the WFP they received the previous winter. So you are not exactly 'returning' the WFP, you are simply facing a slightly higher tax bill next year. If you prefer, the Government has said that it will be possible, in principle, to opt out of the WFP system. But in your situation, where your income is only temporarily over the limit for one year, it's hard to see what you would gain by doing this. It would probably be far simpler to simply get a WFP, put it in the bank and earn a bit of interest, and then use it to help pay your increased tax bill for one year. If you are determined to avoid this situation you could in principle opt out this year, and then (presumably) opt in again the following year, but we have yet to see any details as to how all of this will work and how bureaucratic the whole process will be. Ask Steve Webb a pension question Former pensions minister Steve Webb is This Is Money's agony uncle. He is ready to answer your questions, whether you are still saving, in the process of stopping work, or juggling your finances in retirement. Steve left the Department for Work and Pensions after the May 2015 election. He is now a partner at actuary and consulting firm Lane Clark & Peacock. If you would like to ask Steve a question about pensions, please email him at pensionquestions@ Steve will do his best to reply to your message in a forthcoming column, but he won't be able to answer everyone or correspond privately with readers. Nothing in his replies constitutes regulated financial advice. Published questions are sometimes edited for brevity or other reasons. Please include a daytime contact number with your message - this will be kept confidential and not used for marketing purposes. If Steve is unable to answer your question, you can also contact MoneyHelper, a Government-backed organisation which gives free assistance on pensions to the public. It can be found here and its number is 0800 011 3797.
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21 hours ago
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Full list of benefits that WILL qualify for £300 energy bill support
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