The payments of more than £4.5 billion, are part of an extensive package helping people of all ages with the cost of heating their homes, including through the £400 Energy Bills Support Scheme (available to eligible households in England, Scotland and Wales), and the Energy Price Guarantee saving typical households £900.
Winter Fuel Payments — boosted this year by an additional £300 per household Pensioner Cost of Living Payment — will land in bank accounts over the next two months, the vast majority automatically.
Work and Pensions Secretary, Mel Stride, said the government is providing all pensioner households with an additional £300 on top of their Winter Fuel Payments to heat their homes and stay warm this winter.
The money will appear in bank statements with the payment reference starting with the customer’s National Insurance number followed by ‘DWP WFP’ for people in Great Britain or ‘DFC WFP’ for people in Northern Ireland.
The overwhelming majority of Winter Fuel Payments are paid automatically, but some people need to make a claim, such as those who qualify but do not receive benefits or the State Pension and have never previously received a Winter Fuel Payment.
This month, more than 7 million payments of £324 have already been made to low-income households as part of this government’s cost-of-living support. This includes pensioners receiving Pension Credit.
The average Pension Credit award is worth over £3,500 a year and for those pensioners who may be eligible but are yet to make an application, there is still time to do so and qualify for this additional £324 payment.
This is because Pension Credit claims can be backdated by up to three months, provided the entitlement conditions are met throughout that time.
To ensure that a successful backdated claim falls within the qualifying period for extra £324 cost-of-living help, pensioners are being urged to claim Pension Credit as soon as possible and by no later than 18 December 2022.
The online Pension Credit calculator is on hand to help pensioners check if they’re likely to be eligible and get an estimate of what they may receive.
Further cost-of-living support to be paid next year was announced by the Chancellor in his autumn statement last week. Payments will include a further £300 for pensioners, £900 for households on means-tested benefits, and £150 for those on disability benefits.
