Latest news with #pensioncredit
The Independent
10 hours ago
- Business
- The Independent
Why millions more households will receive the £150 Warm Home Discount
The Warm Home Discount scheme has been expanded to provide £150 directly off energy bills for around six million people, including 900,000 families with children and 1.8 million households in fuel poverty. To be eligible, the bill payer must either receive the guarantee credit element of pension credit or be on a low income. An additional two million people will now receive the automatic discount, after the previous requirement for low-income households to have 'high energy costs' to qualify for the payment was removed. The £150 discount is applied automatically to eligible customers' energy bills between October and March. This positive development for households comes as energy regulator Ofgem is set to drop its energy price cap by 7 per cent for July to September. Rule change to bring £150 winter energy discount to millions more – here's who's eligible
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
This under-claimed benefit could help boost your pension
Last week, the long-awaited announcement on the winter fuel allowance finally happened. After months of speculation, the government hiked the eligibility threshold to £35,000. This means millions more pensioners will get a payment of up to £300 in time for the colder months. It's an announcement that will be greeted with a sigh of relief by pensioners up and down the country. Restricting the payment to those on pension credit and other means-tested benefits was hugely unpopular and meant many low-income pensioners faced a nasty threshold, where those just a few pounds off from qualifying received nothing. These pensioners faced a difficult time as they tried to make their already strained budgets stretch even further over the winter months. Read more: What the winter fuel allowance U-turn means for your finances Details of when the winter fuel allowance will be paid will be available soon, but pensioners will receive the payment automatically — you don't need to claim it. Those with an income of more than £35,000 per year will need to repay it either through PAYE or self-assessment. It's not a flawless system by any means, but it does mean millions more pensioners will get this much needed payment. There were also hopes that the move to restrict the winter fuel allowance would prompt more people to check if they are eligible for pension credit. This is a benefit targeted towards boosting the incomes of the poorest pensioners, which remains chronically under-claimed, despite government attempts to boost awareness. The data shows that the move did prompt more people to check their eligibility, but the fact remains that hundreds of thousands of people who could be claiming it still aren't. The issue of under-claimed pension credit remains unresolved. This benefit not only tops up your income but acts as a valuable bridge to further support. This can include help with council tax and NHS costs. There's also the free TV licence for the over 75s. More work needs to be done to understand why more people don't come forward with a claim. If you or a loved one is over state pension age, then pension credit will top up your weekly income to £227.10 if single or up to £346.60 if you have a partner. If your income is higher, you might still be eligible for pension credit if you have a disability, you care for someone, you have savings or you have housing costs, so it's well worth putting in a claim to see if you qualify for this important benefit. Read more: What is pension credit and are you eligible to claim? How far will your pension go as retirement costs go up? Should people keep working until later in life? Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
This under-claimed benefit could help boost your pension
Last week, the long-awaited announcement on the winter fuel allowance finally happened. After months of speculation, the government hiked the eligibility threshold to £35,000. This means millions more pensioners will get a payment of up to £300 in time for the colder months. It's an announcement that will be greeted with a sigh of relief by pensioners up and down the country. Restricting the payment to those on pension credit and other means-tested benefits was hugely unpopular and meant many low-income pensioners faced a nasty threshold, where those just a few pounds off from qualifying received nothing. These pensioners faced a difficult time as they tried to make their already strained budgets stretch even further over the winter months. Read more: What the winter fuel allowance U-turn means for your finances Details of when the winter fuel allowance will be paid will be available soon, but pensioners will receive the payment automatically — you don't need to claim it. Those with an income of more than £35,000 per year will need to repay it either through PAYE or self-assessment. It's not a flawless system by any means, but it does mean millions more pensioners will get this much needed payment. There were also hopes that the move to restrict the winter fuel allowance would prompt more people to check if they are eligible for pension credit. This is a benefit targeted towards boosting the incomes of the poorest pensioners, which remains chronically under-claimed, despite government attempts to boost awareness. The data shows that the move did prompt more people to check their eligibility, but the fact remains that hundreds of thousands of people who could be claiming it still aren't. The issue of under-claimed pension credit remains unresolved. This benefit not only tops up your income but acts as a valuable bridge to further support. This can include help with council tax and NHS costs. There's also the free TV licence for the over 75s. More work needs to be done to understand why more people don't come forward with a claim. If you or a loved one is over state pension age, then pension credit will top up your weekly income to £227.10 if single or up to £346.60 if you have a partner. If your income is higher, you might still be eligible for pension credit if you have a disability, you care for someone, you have savings or you have housing costs, so it's well worth putting in a claim to see if you qualify for this important benefit. Read more: What is pension credit and are you eligible to claim? How far will your pension go as retirement costs go up? Should people keep working until later in life? Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
This under-claimed benefit could help boost your pension
Last week, the long-awaited announcement on the winter fuel allowance finally happened. After months of speculation, the government hiked the eligibility threshold to £35,000. This means millions more pensioners will get a payment of up to £300 in time for the colder months. It's an announcement that will be greeted with a sigh of relief by pensioners up and down the country. Restricting the payment to those on pension credit and other means-tested benefits was hugely unpopular and meant many low-income pensioners faced a nasty threshold, where those just a few pounds off from qualifying received nothing. These pensioners faced a difficult time as they tried to make their already strained budgets stretch even further over the winter months. Read more: What the winter fuel allowance U-turn means for your finances Details of when the winter fuel allowance will be paid will be available soon, but pensioners will receive the payment automatically — you don't need to claim it. Those with an income of more than £35,000 per year will need to repay it either through PAYE or self-assessment. It's not a flawless system by any means, but it does mean millions more pensioners will get this much needed payment. There were also hopes that the move to restrict the winter fuel allowance would prompt more people to check if they are eligible for pension credit. This is a benefit targeted towards boosting the incomes of the poorest pensioners, which remains chronically under-claimed, despite government attempts to boost awareness. The data shows that the move did prompt more people to check their eligibility, but the fact remains that hundreds of thousands of people who could be claiming it still aren't. The issue of under-claimed pension credit remains unresolved. This benefit not only tops up your income but acts as a valuable bridge to further support. This can include help with council tax and NHS costs. There's also the free TV licence for the over 75s. More work needs to be done to understand why more people don't come forward with a claim. If you or a loved one is over state pension age, then pension credit will top up your weekly income to £227.10 if single or up to £346.60 if you have a partner. If your income is higher, you might still be eligible for pension credit if you have a disability, you care for someone, you have savings or you have housing costs, so it's well worth putting in a claim to see if you qualify for this important benefit. Read more: What is pension credit and are you eligible to claim? How far will your pension go as retirement costs go up? Should people keep working until later in life? Sign in to access your portfolio
BBC News
09-06-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Winter fuel payment U-turn in numbers
The government's decision to largely reverse its cuts to winter fuel payments has raised questions about its spending and savings plans - and its fiscal Verify has been looking at the the key numbers. What has changed on winter fuel? At the time Labour won the 2024 general election, the Department for Work and Pensions was projecting that 10.8 million pensioners in England and Wales would be eligible for winter fuel payments in payments are worth either £200 or £300 per household. The new government, in order to save money, decided that only pensioners in receipt of pension credit (a separate benefit aimed at low-income pensioners) would receive winter fuel payments that winter - and said that would reduce the number of individual recipients to 1.5 the government has changed course - after widespread criticism - and said that, from 2025-26, all pensioners will get it, although it will be clawed back in the following tax year from individuals earning £35,000 and claims this means about 9 million pensioners will now be eligible.. The effect of this is largely to undo the impact of its initial policy in terms of the numbers affected. How much will this cost? The government estimated that the cost of the winter fuel payment system it inherited in 2024-25 would have been £ estimated that its initial reform last year would cut this bill by £1.4bn in 2024-25 (rising to £1.5bn in 2025-26) taking the cost of the system down to £0.5bnNow the government says the cost of the system after its latest change will be £1.25bn - a saving of £450m relative to a system in which all pensioners were eligible to receive the government added that this £450m saving has not yet been certified by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) - the government's official if it transpired, this saving would be only a third of the original £1.5bn savings target. And some analysts think the overall net saving for the government could actually be lower Labour's initial 2024 reform, winter fuel payments were only available to those in receipt of a separate benefit aimed at low-income pensioners, called pension year, the government initiated a campaign to encourage the hundreds of thousands of pensioners who are eligible for pension credit, but who do not claim it, to start doing latest data shows almost 60,000 more pension credit claims were awarded than otherwise might have been, likely because of the government's awareness campaign. With each annual pension credit claim costing the government £3,900 a year on average, the former Lib Dem pensions minister Steve Webb has calculated that the total annual cost of these new claims could be about £ additional cost would offset around half of the £450m savings claimed by the government for its latest changes to winter fuel eligibility. How can the government afford this U-turn? When Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced the tightening of winter fuel payments in 2024, she said the £1.5bn per year savings were needed to stabilise the public those savings were entered into the OBR's budget calculations. Now the savings will only be £450m per year - or even lower - a gap of at least £1bn will open up in the government's Treasury said it will address this gap in the next Budget in the Autumn of 2025 and said "it will not lead to permanent additional borrowing".Assuming the OBR does not raise its GDP growth and tax revenue forecasts in the Budget, giving the government more money to fill the gap, this will imply ministers would either have to raise additional taxes or cut spending elsewhere to close this roughly £1bn gap .However, it should be noted that £1bn is a relatively low sum in the context of the public 2025-26 the government is projected by the OBR to spend £1,347bn and to borrow £ is also worth noting that the projected savings from the government's working age welfare reforms, announced earlier this year, are considerably higher than the savings from changing eligibility for winter fuel changes in eligibility for personal independence payments and the cuts to universal credit incapacity payments are projected by the OBR to save the government £4.8bn a year by 2029-30. If the government were to reverse or water down those reforms, as some Labour MPs are urging, it would create a considerably larger financial headache for the chancellor in terms of meeting her fiscal rules specify that she has to be projected to be on course to balance the government's day-to-day spending budget (which excludes spending on infrastructure) by March 2025, the OBR projected that she had just £9.9bn of "headroom" against this rule, a very small amount of leeway given the size of overall government spending and the welfare cuts would wipe out around half of many economists expect the chancellor's projected headroom to be further eroded by the OBR in any case in the Autumn Budget as a result of downgraded growth forecasts and an increase in government market borrowing costs in recent months. What do you want BBC Verify to investigate?
