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Winter Fuel Payments restricted to PC claimants
Qualifying benefits include an award of child tax credit or working tax credit of not less than £26 in respect of the tax year 2024-25. First we’ve heard about that.
Paul,
Great spot - can’t see any guidance etc yet?
Cheers
Glad to see it in the Regs but still not mentioned on gov.uk!
Our worry is that CTC claimants see that and think the only way to get WFP is to claim PC - and so claim PC before getting a TCCN. They could end up missing out on Transitional Protection. Although admittedly it probably won’t affect too many people.
“Starmer said yesterday: “We have looked at the books, there is £22bn missing from the books and we have got to deal with that. We have got to take tough decisions. Targeting the winter fuel payments is a tough decision. We have put in safeguards for many pensioners, with pension credit, with housing benefit.””
Starmer seems to think that Housing Benefit passports someone to WFP eligibility, which of course it doesn’t currently (although it should at the very least). It would be laughable if it wasn’t so serious that the PM doesn’t even understand the basics when he’s backing these type of decisions.
Winter fuel payments cut ‘one of the worst decisions I have ever seen’ says ex pensions minister
We’ve started a petition against the changes. Please do sign and share.
I have shared this all over social media
The gov.uk guidance seems to imply if you are a couple you both need to be over the qualifying age. Is this correct?
“If you and your partner jointly claim any of the benefits, one of you will get a payment of either:
£200 if both of you were born between 23 September 1944 and 22 September 1958
£300 if one or both of you were born before 23 September 1944”
The gov.uk guidance seems to imply if you are a couple you both need to be over the qualifying age. Is this correct?
No - as far as we know Mixed Aged Couples can get it if they’re on a qualifying benefit. My colleague noticed that yesterday so we’ve emailed the UC engagement team to try and get it changed. We pointed out a different error on a gov.uk page and that was changed within a week so hopefully it’ll be fixed soon!
Brilliant, thank you Rachel!
We’ve started a petition against the changes. Please do sign and share.
I have shared this all over social media
Thanks, it’s up to 518,060 signatures now which is remarkable.
Couple of articles from the Guardian on this.
Groups representing disabled people are demanding urgent meetings with ministers after it was revealed that 1.6 million pensioners with disabilities will lose their winter fuel payments because of government cuts.
The figures were released by the Department for Work and Pensions on Friday evening, in answer to a freedom of information request, despite the government having said it had done no official impact assessment on the policy. The internal DWP analysis also suggested that nine in 10 pensioners aged between 66 and 79, and eight out of 10 over-80s would lose their allowance.
Charities demand to meet UK ministers as 1.6m disabled OAPs set to lose winter fuel payments
Labour MPs who missed a controversial vote on removing the winter fuel payment from most pensioners have been stripped of potential privileges and warned about their future conduct, the Guardian has been told.
While the sanctions have caused some anger, with one of the MPs calling the whips’ behaviour “feudal”, the overall response to the rebellion has been seemingly less severe than in July, when seven MPs lost the Labour whip for rebelling.
Labour MPs who missed winter fuel vote given ‘feudal’ warning by whips
Govan Law Centre running a JR against the decision to means-test WFP’s on grounds of lack of EIA and lack of consultation with older people.
Cheers Paul ... here’s the Govan Law Centre write-up too:
https://govanlawcentre.org/2024/09/26/legal-challenge-to-the-winter-fuel-payment-cut/