Some older people who would have been eligible for a £200 Winter Fuel Payment this winter coming will not be able to get the money after all thanks to another state pension age rise taking effect this September.
After years of mostly unpopular changes to the Winter Fuel Payment system, the £200 to £300 payment is back to being universally sent out to all state pensioners this winter, though if you earn more than £35,000, you’ll have to repay the whole payment back to HMRC in tax.
But the state pension age rise, which is being phased in across a two-year period between 2026 and 2028, will mean that some people who would have been able to get the payment this winter will now not be eligible for the money after all.
The State Pension age is currently in the process of rising from age 66 to 67, with the next phase of the change getting underway this month from September 6. The age increase is being introduced gradually over a two-year period which is due to complete in 2028, and will delay the point at which people with a 66th birthday within this timeframe become eligible for the State Pension and, in turn, other pension-age benefits and handouts, such as the Winter Fuel Payment.
If you were born between September 6, 1960, and October 5, 1960, you won’t be eligible to receive a Winter Fuel Payment until six months after you turn 66, delaying the point at which you can start receiving the £200 payment until at least March 6, 2027, by which point you will have passed the qualifying week and no longer be eligible for the payment this winter at all.
That’s because the ‘qualifying week’ to be eligible for the Winter Fuel Payment is September 21 to 28, 2026. So if you turn 66 on September 6 or later, you would previously have been able to get a state pension, and with it, a Winter Fuel Payment, but instead you have to wait until March, which is long after the qualifying week. It means you won’t be able to receive the Winter Fuel Payment until next winter, 2026-2027.
Explaining the impact of the age rise, Clare Moffat, Pension and Tax Expert at Royal London, told the Express: “Raising the State Pension age doesn’t just affect when people can claim their State Pension, it also means some older people will have to wait longer before they can access valuable financial support.”
