WINTER FUEL PAYMENT 2025/26
Qualifying
· Everyone
aged 66 by 21 September this year – born 21/9/1959 or before – will get the Winter Fuel Payment in Nov/Dec 2025. It will be paid automatically into your bank account without a claim. Ignore any emails or messages inviting you to claim it. They are from thieves. Don’t click on any links and delete them.
·
However,
a very few who have not claimed their state pension, have never worked in the
UK, or have legally arrived in the UK recently may not be known to the Department for Work and Pensions. They will be missed and will have to
claim. You can’t claim yet. But later in the year go to gov.uk and search ‘winter fuel payment’. The deadline is March 2026
· How much
The Payment is £200 per household where one or both is aged 66 to 79 and £300 if one or both are over 80 - born 21/9/45 or earlier.
·
Couples
not on means-tested benefits will get half each, so either £100 or £150 each. Though if one is over 80 and the other not the older one will get £200 and the younger £100.
For a couple where one claims a means-tested benefit, the whole amount will be paid to that person
·
People
in care homes will get the Winter Fuel Payment as long as they do not claim any
means-tested benefit there. They will get the half payment - £100 aged 66-79 and £150 aged 80 or more. If they get a means-tested benefit they will not get
the payment.
People living outside the UK cannot get the Winter Fuel Payment. In Winter 2023/24 and earlier it was payable to some people in the EEA and before that in parts of the EU and before that throughout the EU, but that is no longer the case.
Taking it
back
· Individuals who get Winter Fuel Payment who have a taxable income above £35,000 in 2025/26 will have their Winter Fuel Payment taken back in full through their income tax in 2026/27. That will normally be done through their tax code if they have one. It will be reduced so that they pay back a twelfth of the payment each month from April 2026 to March 2027. That will mean extra monthly tax of £16.67 if they get the standard £200 payment. The details of how the tax code itself will change have yet to be announced.
However, people who already complete a self-assessment form will not have their tax code amended but will repay the winter fuel payment in full with their first tax payment for 2025/26 which is due by 31 January 2027 at the latest. As far as I can see their tax return will be prepopulated with the repayment. They should check that their tax code on a pension or earnings has not been adjusted as well.
The few people affected who neither have a tax code nor do self-assessment will repay the Winter Fuel Payment through the simple assessment procedure which collects the tax they owe. HMRC says it will be done automatically without the need to register or take any action.
In 2027/28 HMRC plans to take back the winter fuel payment from 2026/27 and 2027/28 even though the income for 2027/28 will not be known when it is recovered - as set out here see 'winter payment'. That means that it will be taking back two winter fuel payments only one of which will have been received. HMRC says any errors -- for example if income falls below the £35,000 limit in 2027/28 -- will be corrected through the tax code. It plans to recover the payment in years from 2028/29 from the April before the payment has been received. The law implementing this recovery scheme has not yet been published still less passed by Parliament.
· Taxable income includes all money that counts, or could count, towards income tax due in a year. State pension, earnings, pensions from a job, retirement annuities, personal pensions, taxable drawdown from a SIPP, taxable social security benefits such as widow's benefit, carers allowance, and incapacity benefit, rental income (but not up to £7500 a year from rent-a-room), interest on savings, and dividends will all be counted. Savings interest and dividends are counted in full including the amount within the £1000 or £500 personal savings allowance or the £500 dividend allowance. Interest on ISA savings and dividends on ISA investments are not taxable and do not count as taxable income. Nor does any profit made on trading or property covered by the £1000 trading and property allowances. Premium Bond prizes do not count as taxable income. Capital gains are not counted as income. Non-taxable benefits such as attendance allowance will not be counted as income.
Paying into a pension or giving money to charity will probably not reduce the taxable income that is counted. No question is asked about either on the official calculator. However, there may be circumstances where it might. The rules have not yet been published.
·
There
will be no assessment of household incomes. So a low-income husband may keep
£100 and his high income wife may have her £100 taken back through her tax. Or
£150 if both are over 80.
·
There
will be no assessment of capital so the value of a home or savings or
investments or property will not be counted. So some ‘millionaires’ in the
broadest definition will still get it even if their home or savings or both
together exceed £1 million but their individual taxable income is £35,000 or below.
·
Government
says about two million will have it taken back and more than 9 million will
keep it.
·
Government
says the threshold of £35,000 was chosen to ensure all who need it get it and
it is ‘broadly in line with average earnings’.
You can opt out of receiving the winter fuel payment. The deadline for this year was 15 September so it is too late to opt out of this winter's payment. The opt out window for the 2026 winter opens on 1 April 2026.
·
Nine
million pensioners to receive Winter Fuel Payments this winter - GOV.UK
Northern Ireland
·
Last
winter, Northern Ireland implemented the pension credit means-test for the
Winter Fuel Payment, but in addition gave £100 to every pensioner of qualifying
age who did not get the payment.
·
This
winter it will follow the England and Wales rules, the Communities Minister has
confirmed.
·
Stormont
confirms Winter Fuel Payment reinstated for Northern Ireland |
BelfastTelegraph.co.uk
Scotland
· From this winter the payment will be called the Pension Age Winter Heating Payment. It was due to be based on the England and Wales scheme as it was last year, ie confined to those on pension credit, but with £100 for all pensioners who did not qualify for that.
However, it will now follow the new scheme in the rest of the UK but with payments of £203.40 aged 66-79 and £305.10 aged 80 or more. The extra amounts reflect a 1.7% increase on last year’s payments, in line with last September’s inflation which was used to raise other benefits. As in rest of UK the payment will be given to all and then recouped from those with an income in 2025/26 of more than £35,000. The mechanism for recovering the money will be the same as in the rest of the UK. The £100 payment which the Scottish government promised for all pensioners who don't qualify for winter fuel payment has been scrapped. Official gov.scot announcement here.
Paul Lewis
24 September 2025
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