More pensioners will receive winter fuel payments
More pensioners will receive the winter fuel allowance this winter – but payments will not be universal, the Government has said.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves told reporters that “more people will get winter fuel payment this winter”, adding that further details will be announced “as soon as we possibly can”.
She said: “People should be in no doubt that the means test will increase and more people will get winter fuel payment this winter.”
Partial U-turn
Meanwhile, pensions minister Torsten Bell told MPs that, while more pensioners will be eligible, there is no prospect of returning to universal winter fuel payments.
Speaking to the Work and Pensions Committee, Mr Bell said: “Directly on your question of is there any prospect of a universal winter fuel payment, the answer is no, the principle I think most people, 95% of people, agree, that it’s not a good idea that we have a system paying a few hundreds of pounds to millionaires, and so we’re not going to be continuing with that.
“But we will be looking at making more pensioners eligible.”
Mr Bell said he did not have “lots to add” to what Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer had said recently about the allowance.
He told the MPs: “Of course the announcement, as and when it’s made, will be made to the House.”
“Black hole”
Sir Keir recently signalled a partial U-turn over the Government’s decision to strip winter fuel payments from millions of pensioners.
The Prime Minister said “as the economy improves”, he wanted to look at widening eligibility for the payments worth up to £300.
But officials have been unable to say how many more pensioners would be eligible.
The decision to means-test the previously universal payment was one of the first announcements by Chancellor Rachel Reeves after Labour’s landslide election victory last year, and it has been widely blamed for the party’s collapse in support.
The Government has insisted the policy was necessary to help stabilise the public finances, allowing the improvements in the economic picture which Sir Keir said could result in the partial reversal of the measure.
On July 29 2024, the Government announced that from winter 2024, winter fuel payments would be dependent on receiving another means-tested benefit, as part of measures to fill a “black hole” in the public finances.
This meant the number of pensioners receiving the payment was reduced by around 10 million, from 11.4 million to 1.5 million.
Pension credit is the primary benefit by which pensioners can receive the winter fuel payment.
The credit tops up incomes for poorer pensioners and acts as a gateway to additional support, including the winter fuel payment.
Asked what groups who are currently missing out on winter fuel payments he would like to include again, if possible, Mr Bell told the committee: “We are committed to the principle that there should be some means-testing and that those on the highest incomes shouldn’t be receiving winter fuel payments in the context of wider decisions we have to make – and fairness is an important part of that.
“You can then take from that that my priority is those who are on lower incomes but have missed out.”
He told the MPs: “I’m not getting into anything about the operation of that but just, you know, I think all of us will have heard from people on lower incomes who didn’t receive winter fuel payment this year and I understand the points they’ve raised. And so we’d like to see wider eligibility.”
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Typical Starmer Labour spin. Say they are going to change this shameful policy. Tell mistruths by saying they can do it because the economy is growing when it isn’t because they haven’t the courage to admit that the voters hate the policy. Finally, they give no details of eligibility or when it will happen. No wonder this Starmer is despised after just 10 months in power. Starmer’s showing us how not to do politics.
The ONS reported that in the first three months of the year, the UK economy beat expectations and grew more than the economies of the USA, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.
A YouGov poll taken on 8 May 2025 showed that a majority (47%) supported means testing for winter fuel payments, with 39% against.
Why should working taxpayers pay extra for the heating bills of affluent pensioners, who’re protected every year by the triple lock?
Did you see or feel any of that alleged growth ? It’s all fudge. All I felt was the rising costs of living which far exceeds those diluted indicies they keep bandying about.
On your other point you need to remember that today’s working tax payers will become tomorrow’s pensioners, affluent or not.
With respect, it’s not at all about whether or not we as individuals see evidence of that growth in our lives, but rather it’s economic growth which has permitted the UK government to extend the winter fuel allowance to a number who didn’t receive it last winter.
We need to remember that pensioners, through the triple lock guarantee, enjoy far more financial certainty than young taxpaying families who have to pay not just their own heating but also the energy bills of others through this winter fuel allowance.
It is easy to support means testing until you are the person £1 the wrong side of an artificial barrier. is an individual on £11,801 affluent?
We don’t yet know how the means testing will be determined.
Bear in mind there was already an ‘artificial’ barrier for people to claim the universal winter fuel benefit — 66 years olds were able to claim this state support, but a 65 year old would have to find the money themselves.
All I know is that I’m not particularly pleased about working a full-time job and paying tax for people earning far more than myself through multiple private pensions, who then used the universal winter fuel benefit ‘top-up’ to fund their lengthy winter sojourns on the Côte d’Azur.
You’ve been very selective in describing this poll because many other polls cite exactly the opposite. There’s no easy way to do means testing, that’s why even the Tories didn’t touch it. The truth is Starmer implemented this policy to look tough and now has created an almighty mess that was only going to save £1.6 billion in the first place. He would gain more respect by admitting this abysmal mess than pretending otherwise.
A later YouGov poll on 22 May revealed that 44% said the benefit should be means tested but offered to more pensioners than it is currently, while 33% backed reverting to a universal benefit model.
Which polls show the opposite?
You’re right, there are no simple mechanisms to increase eligibility so it’ll be interesting to see how this is tackled.
Why did you make that claim about the economy in your original comment when all economic indicators point to growth?
There was a very easy way to means test the winter fuel payment. Get it in full if income below personal allowance, then tax it at 20% and claw it back £1 for £1 when you go above the 40% threshold. No cliff edge until you reach higher rate tax.
Too simple. Can’t expect well paid execs at the top of Treasury and HMRC to figure out something like that. They need complexity and vagueness to enable duplicity. Anyway the Treasury are now trying to work out some scam where they can give some Allowance but not breach the dam they have in their silly minds.