The Chancellor , Rachel Reeves , has done a complete uturn on her decision of July 2024 to withdraw the Winter Fuel Payment for nearly 9 million UK Pensioners.
In 2024 she had restricted the payment to only those Pensioners in receipt of Pension Credit. However her announcement today will restore the Payment to all households on incomes of £35,00 or less. Payments are to be made automatically to all Pensioners and for those above the £35,000 ceiling they will have this automatically recovered by HMRC. This applies to pensioners in England & Wales only.
However it states that both the Scottish & Northern Ireland Governments will receive a “Mechanical Uplift“. We assume that this means that they will get the necessary funding to pay the Winter Fuel Payments at the same level as England & Wales.
CSPA NI have written to the Department for Communities seeking urgent clarification.
