Fears over 120,000 OAPS losing winter fuel payments

Pensioners eligible for help to pay their heating bills this year, even after Rachel Reeves's reforms, still face monthslong delays in processing claims, The Independent can reveal

- KATE DEVLIN, ALBERT TOTH

Ministers fear up to 120,000 of the most vulnerable pensioners will miss out on money to pay their winter fuel bills after Rachel Reeves stripped the payment from millions of older people.

The government is to write to the group next month to warn them they will lose out unless they apply for pension credits before Christmas.

But many face months-long delays in processing forms, meaning they still may not receive the cash this winter, The Independent can reveal.

Ministers have defended the change, saying they have to “get the money from somewhere” and blaming the last Conservative government for leaving a £22bn black hole in the public finances.

But they have urged less well-off pensioners to apply for pension credit, under which they would still be eligible for the £200-300 winter fuel payment, designed to help with heating costs during the colder months.

Now ministers are to write to tens of thousands of pensioners to warn they could still be eligible for the cash.

Out of around a million older people on housing benefit, they will tell more than 100,000 of them they could still receive assistance with their heating bills.

Work and pensions minister Emma Reynolds said in an answer to a parliamentary question: “In November we will also be writing to approximately 120,000 pensioners who are in receipt of housing benefit and who may also be eligible for, but not currently claiming, pension credit. We will be inviting these pensioners to claim pension credit by 21 December.”