£300 Winter Fuel Payment boost began reaching pensioners

An extra £300 was paid to eight million pensioners as an increase to the Winter Fuel Payment for 2023 to 2024, sent automatically by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) from 1 November¹. The payment was part of a package of cost of living support announced by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt in the 2022 Autumn Statement¹.

The Winter Fuel Payment is usually between £100 and £300, meaning some eligible pensioners could have received a total of £400 to £600 in government support for the year¹. Turn2us, an independent charity, states that for winter 2023/2024 the Winter Fuel Payment was increased by £150 or £300, and that anyone born on or before 25 September 1957 could get the extra help². It adds that where more than one person in a household is over 66, only one extra payment is made per household². Most people did not need to apply, as the payment was made automatically alongside the Winter Fuel Payment². Turn2us says anyone who had not received a Winter Fuel Payment into their account by 26 January 2024 could contact the Winter Fuel Payment Centre².

The £300 pensioner payment sat alongside other cost of living payments made under the same package. A £299 payment was sent to around eight million households on means-tested benefits between 6 and 22 February 2024, the last of three instalments worth a total of £900¹. Turn2us gives the second instalment of £300 as paid between 31 October and 19 November 2023 for most people, and the first instalment of £301 as paid between 25 April and 17 May 2023³. A one-off £150 payment was made between 20 June and 4 July 2023 to more than six million people with disabilities¹.

The DWP said nearly 880,000 homes in the UK could get £299 more if they applied for pension credit by Tuesday 5 March 2024¹. Around 1.4 million UK low-income pensioners already received pension credit, a means-tested benefit¹. Guarantee credit tops up weekly income to £201.05 for single people and £306.85 for couples in 2023-24¹. Turn2us states that pension credit can be backdated for three months, giving until 5 March 2024 to apply and be entitled to the third instalment of the cost of living payment³.

Why it matters for households

The £300 top-up reached pensioners automatically from 1 November 2023, without a claim, and was paid on top of the usual Winter Fuel Payment of between £100 and £300¹. For households containing more than one person over 66, only one extra payment was made². Pensioners who had not received the money by 26 January 2024 were directed to the Winter Fuel Payment Centre².

The wider cost of living package was paid in stages across the financial year: £301 in spring 2023, £300 in autumn 2023 and £299 in winter 2024 for those on means-tested benefits, with the final instalment landing between 6 and 22 February 2024¹. Eligibility for the £299 payment depended on receiving a qualifying benefit for an assessment period ending between 13 November and 12 December 2023, and pension credit could be backdated so that an application by 5 March 2024 could still qualify³. Payments were made separately from benefits and did not need to be claimed³.

Separate research from the abrdn Financial Fairness Tracker, based on a survey of 5,594 households in October 2023, found the number of households in serious financial difficulties had risen from 2.8 million (10 per cent) in October 2021 to 4.8 million (17 per cent)⁴. It reported that 9 per cent of all households had used a foodbank in the past six months, rising to 24 per cent of those receiving income-related benefits and 20 per cent of those receiving disability-related benefits⁴.

What happens next

The sources describe the £300 pensioner top-up as a payment for winter 2023 to 2024, sent from 1 November 2023¹. Turn2us records that the Winter Fuel Payment had also been increased by £300 for winter 2022/23². No further increase to the Winter Fuel Payment beyond 2023 to 2024 is reported in these sources. The abrdn Financial Fairness Tracker notes the energy price cap rising by £94 per year from January 2024 and a 5 per cent increase in the energy price cap expected from January⁴.