Thousands waiting for winter fuel payment despite DWP processing record claims

The number of claims for pension credit reached a record high following changes to the winter fuel payment. Tens of thousands of pensioners have been waiting for two months for a decision on their winter fuel payment application, new figures from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) show.

The cold weather benefit is designed to help pensioners with energy bills during the lower temperatures, but many are still waiting to receive the payment towards the end of February. A record 117,800 pension credit claims were processed following Labour’s decision to link the benefit to the winter fuel payment, new figures from the DWP show, up 64 per cent from the same time last year.

This came after 300,000 applications were made in the year, another record. In response, the DWP drafted in 500 staff, resulting in the number of claims cleared doubling between chancellor Rachel Reeve’s announcement on 29 July 2024 and 23 February this year.

Secretary of state for work and pensions Liz Kendall said: “The record high number of claims awarded follows months of work to drive awareness of Pension Credit and then to process the huge spike in applications we received, and now thousands more pensioners are accessing the range of support on offer.”.

However, there were still 33,700 claims yet to be cleared on 23 February, with 18,900 of these made in time for the 22 December deadline to apply and still receive a backdated winter fuel payment. The number of rejected claims also skyrocketed by 133 per cent compared to last year, as 114,500 applicants were denied pension credit.

Responding to the data, Liberal Democrat Work and Pensions spokesperson Steve Darling MP said: “Ministers' promises of boosting pension credit applications are utterly meaningless if they can’t process those claims in time, leaving many shivering in their homes.

“The government needs to realise the error of their ways and that a situation like this can never be repeated. That means cancelling energy bill rises for those pensioners who have had their Winter Fuel Payments cruelly stripped away.”. Labour faced intense criticism from political opponents and campaigners for older people following its decision to scrap the winter fuel payment for all but the poorest pensioners. Announcing the decision last July, the chancellor said it was not a decision she “wanted to make” but was necessary to deal with the ‘black hole’ in public finances left by the previous government.

In January, The Independent revealed that changes to the payment had caused waiting time for pension credit to remain at over 100 days by the start of December. Analysis by charity Age UK found that at least 2.5 million older people would struggle without the winter fuel payment. This includes those on low incomes but just above the new threshold, those with disabilities, and 900,000 eligible people not claiming pension credit due to reasons like stigma and lack of awareness.

Last week, the charity presented a petition with 650,000 signatures to the government to ‘Save the Winter Fuel Payment.’ New research from them finds that 3 in 4 pensioners – 9.1 million people – said their homes were colder than they would like them to be at least some of the time.