PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Winter Fuel Payment (3 September 2024)

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an estimate the number of pensioners who will see a reduction in their disposable income as a result of her proposed reforms to Winter Fuel Payments by (a) household type, (b) age and (c) region and; what the average loss is.

Asked by:
Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat)

The estimated number of pensioners who will see a reduction in their disposable income as a result of proposed reforms to winter fuel payments by age and region, for Great Britain are shown in below tables (1+2). This analysis is not available by household type and average loss.

This is the number of pensioners that will no longer receive Winter Fuel Payment as they do not claim Pension Credit. Therefore, we are assuming these people will see a reduction in their disposable income as they will no longer be receiving Winter Fuel Payments. These are based on the 22/23 Winter Fuel Payment statistics and Feb-24 Pension Credit statistics (sources shown below).

This estimation is calculated by subtracting the number of Pension Credit recipients for each region and age group from the number of Winter Fuel Payment recipients for each region and age group. Please note that the Pension Credit data that is used should be based on the 2010 Westminster Parliamentary constituencies, not 2024, in order to be comparable with the Winter Fuel Payments statistics.

In addition to that, the above figures do not take into account any potential increase in Pension Credit take-up we might see as a result of the Pension Credit Awareness Campaign. We do not have data on those additional Pension Credit claims by Parliamentary constituencies or local authorities.

Also, the published Pension Credit figures refer to households, so the number of individuals will be higher (i.e., taking account of households where it is a couple claiming Pension Credit).

Furthermore, Pension Credit claimants are the majority of those that will be eligible for Winter Fuel Payments, not all. There are other pensioners who are eligible for Winter Fuel Payments (as they claim other means tested benefits) but they are not considered in these figures as it is not possible to do so.

Source:

The Winter Fuel Payments statistics are published here:

Winter Fuel Payment statistics for winter 2022 to 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Pension Credit data is published here: Pension Credit – Data from May 2018

Table 1:

Region (Great Britain)	WFP claimants pre-policy change not claiming Pension Credit [an estimate of those who will no longer receive WFP]
North East	432,162
North West	1,123,461
Yorkshire and the Humber	857,346
East Midlands	800,580
West Midlands	914,627
East of England	1,062,241
London	778,851
South East	1,550,446
South West	1,090,058
Wales	539,092
Scotland	866,295

Table 2:

Age group (Great Britain)	WFP claimants pre-policy change not claiming Pension Credit [an estimate of those who will no longer receive WFP]
Up to 69	2,369,989
70-74	2,708,756
75-79	2,275,970
80 and over	2,659,950

Answered by:
Emma Reynolds (Labour)
16 September 2024