DWP makes another big change to £300 Winter Fuel Payments

The DWP has laid bare an incoming fresh shake-up to £300 Winter Fuel Allowance payouts.

The Department for Work and Pensions is rolling out ANOTHER change to Winter Fuel Payments after voting to scrap them for all but the poorest pensioners. The DWP has laid bare an incoming fresh shake-up to £300 Winter Fuel Allowance payouts.

The DWP has updated its guidance, meaning many that previously had to apply to receive their funds now no longer need have to. This includes people with a joint claim to Universal Credit, where one member was over the state pension age.

Under the new rules, all households claiming these benefits do not need to apply for this year’s Winter Fuel Payment unless they live abroad: Pension credit, Universal Credit, Income support, Income-based jobseeker's allowance (JSA), Income-related employment support allowance (ESA), Child tax credit and Working tax credit.

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Rachael Maskell, the MP for York Central, who has been one of the most outspoken Labour critics of the plan, called for it to be delayed and rethought. Pensioners, she said, “make the hardest budgetary decisions, harder than those of the Treasury, where there are choices. They have no choice. They have to put a roof over the head, they have to pay for their food, and they have to pay for their heating.”

These people, she added, were “telling us they’re frightened because they won’t switch the switch, because they know if they do, they will have bills that they cannot pay”. The Conservative party chair, Richard Fuller, said: “At the start of this week, Labour MPs marched through the lobbies to cover up the impact of the winter fuel cuts which will slash support for many pensioners in their own constituencies.

“This shocking new data, sneaked out by the government, now shows 780,000 people who should be entitled to the payment will lose out, as will 1.6 million people with a disability.” He called on Labour to immediately conduct and publish a full impact assessment of “this harmful policy”.