State pensioners whose income is above £11,343.80 'warned'

Around 10 million pensioners in England and Wales will lose their winter fuel payments under new plans announced by the chancellor. From this autumn, those not on pension credit or other means-tested benefits will no longer get the annual payments, worth between £100 and £300.

Pensioners whose income is above £11,343.80 will be ruled out from claiming because they are "too wealthy" in the eyes of the government. Independent Age chief executive Joanna Elson said: “Up to 1.2million older adults living on a low income could be missing out.”

A new analysis by Policy in Practice, a social policy software and analytics company, suggests about 130,000 people will miss out on winter fuel payments in the UK because they are up to £500 a year over the threshold for receiving pension credit, making them ineligible for the benefit. Experts warned they may end up worse off than some of those qualifying for the payment.

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An estimated 850,000 older people are also eligible for pension credit in the UK, but not claiming it. Ros Altmann, a former Conservative pensions minister, said the government had made a “real blunder” by scrapping the winter fuel allowance for millions of pensioners.

Lady Altmann said: “It’s made pensioners very angry and I’ve already had loads of emails. The chancellor kept saying: ‘If we can’t afford it, we can’t do it.’ Pensioners might have to say with their heating: ‘If we can’t afford it, we can’t turn it on.’

“This is genuine error where policy wonks don’t realise just how much of a knife edge some pensioners are on. There are so many people just above the threshold who are going to suffer from this.” A government spokesperson said: “This government is committed to pensioners: protecting the triple lock, keeping energy bills low through our warm homes plan and cutting NHS waiting lists. Given the dire state of the public finances we have inherited, this government must take difficult decisions to fix the foundations of the economy. In these circumstances, it is right that winter fuel payments are targeted at those in most need, and we will work with local authorities to boost uptake of pension credit, reaching the many pensioners who could still benefit from this year’s winter fuel payments.”