Oral Question·Department for Work and Pensions
“What assessment she has made of the potential impact of means testing the Winter Fuel Payment on levels of pensioner poverty.”
Tabled: 10 December 2024Answered: 16 December 2024
Asked by
Mr Richard Holden
Conservative — Basildon and Billericay
Answering Minister
the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Answer from Hansard
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Emma Reynolds)
Under the last Conservative Government, an estimated 880,000 of the poorest pensioners eligible for pension credit were not claiming it. We have launched the biggest ever pension credit awareness campaign and written to 120,000 pensioners on housing benefit, urging them to apply. As a result, claims for pension credit have more than doubled, and those who receive pension credit will also receive winter fuel payments and other related benefits.