Winter Fuel Payments

(asked on 21st October 2014) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many in-work working-age households received winter fuel payments in 2013-14; what estimate he has made of how many such households will be claiming winter fuel payments in each of the next four financial years; and what assessment he has made of the effect of equalising the state pension age for men and women on the take-up of winter fuel payments.


Answered by
 Portrait
Steve Webb
This question was answered on 24th October 2014

Information about how many in-work working-age households received Winter Fuel Payments in 2013-14 is not available.

The table below shows the number of people aged under 65 receiving a Winter Fuel Payment and the associated expenditure in years 2009-10 to 2018-19 inclusive:

Expenditure (£m)

Caseload (000s)

2009/10

640.8

3,358

2010/11

624.1

3,265

2011/12

451.5

2,927

2012/13

385.4

2,484

2013/14

324.1

2,056

2014/15

268.2

1,714

2015/16

215.8

1,389

2016/17

157.1

1,019

2017/18

85.8

563

2018/19

14.8

95

Notes

Numbers are for Winter Fuel Payments made to those eligible in Great Britain, European Economic Area and Switzerland aged 60-64: outturn to 2013-14; forecast 2014/15 onwards.

Winter Fuel Payments in 2009-10 and 2010-11 included one-off £50 payments for the under 80s.

One of the Winter Fuel Payment eligibility criteria is a person’s age in the qualifying week (the third full week in September). This age has been rising in line with the increase to the female State Pension age.

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