The winter gas fee is aimed toward serving to pensioners pay for increased gas payments in the course of the colder months.
About 11.5 million pensioners will obtain as much as £600 – this quantity features a £300 per family pensioner value of residing fee.
Here is every thing it’s essential to learn about when and the way the fee will likely be made, who’s eligible, and what to do in the event you do not obtain your fee.
Who is eligible for the winter gas fee?
You can get a winter gas fee in the event you had been born earlier than 25 September 1957.
You often must stay within the UK to qualify for the fee.
But in the event you moved to an eligible nation earlier than 1 January 2021, and have a “genuine and sufficient link to the UK” – reminiscent of residing and dealing right here beforehand – you’ll qualify.
The eligible nations are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, and Switzerland.
There are some circumstances the place you’ll not be eligible, together with when you have been in hospital for all the final yr, in the event you had been in jail for the entire of the week of 18 to 24 September 2023, and in the event you lived in a care house for the entire time from 26 June to 24 September 2023.
How a lot is the winter gas fee?
The winter gas fee is between £250 and £600.
If you reside alone or nobody you reside with is eligible for the winter gas fee, you’ll get both:
• £500 in the event you had been born between 25 September 1943 and 24 September 1957
• £600 in the event you had been born earlier than 25 September 1943
If you reside with another person who’s eligible for the winter gas fee, the fee could also be cut up between the 2 of you.
Exactly how that’s completed is dependent upon while you had been born and what advantages you obtain.
Your fee could also be totally different in the event you obtain one in all these advantages: pension credit score, income-based jobseeker’s allowance (JSA), income-related employment and help allowance (ESA), and revenue help.
If you and your accomplice collectively declare any of those advantages, one in all you’ll get a fee of £500 if each of you had been born between 25 September 1943 and 24 September 1957, or £600 if one or each of you had been born earlier than 25 September 1943.
If you don’t declare the advantages collectively, you’ll get a person fee: once more, £500 in the event you had been born between 25 September 1943 and 24 September 1957 or £600 in the event you had been born earlier than 25 September 1943.
If you don’t get any of the advantages, you’ll get a fee of both:
• £250 in the event you and the individual you reside with had been each born between 25 September 1943 and 24 September 1957
• £250 in the event you had been born between 25 September 1943 and 24 September 1957 however the individual you reside with was born earlier than 25 September 1943
• £350 in the event you had been born earlier than 25 September 1943 however the individual you reside with was born between 25 September 1943 and 24 September 1957
• £300 in the event you and the individual you reside with had been each born earlier than 25 September 1943.
Care house residents can nonetheless get the fee, however it’s much less.
Eligible care house residents will get £250 in the event that they had been born between 25 September 1943 and 24 September 1957 and £300 in the event that they had been born earlier than 25 September 1943.
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How do you get the winter gas fee?
Most folks get the winter gas fee robotically.
If you are eligible, you need to have obtained a letter in October or November saying how a lot you will get.
You will get the fee robotically in the event you obtain the state pension or one other profit, together with pension credit score, attendance allowance, private independence fee (PIP), carers allowance, incapacity residing allowance (DLA), revenue help, income-related employment and help allowance (ESA), income-based jobseeker’s allowance (JSA), awards from the struggle pensions scheme, industrial accidents disablement profit, incapacity profit, and industrial demise profit.
If you don’t get any of those, you’ll need to say – however provided that you’ve got not acquired the fee earlier than.
You’ll additionally must make a declare when you have deferred your state pension since your final winter gas fee. Details on find out how to declare by put up or telephone are on the authorities web site.
When is the winter gas fee paid?
The winter gas fee will likely be paid immediately into your checking account in November or December.
It will seem in financial institution statements with the fee reference beginning with the client’s National Insurance quantity adopted by ‘DWP WFP’ for folks in Great Britain, or ‘DFC WFP’ for folks in Northern Ireland.
What do you have to do if the fee would not come via?
If you don’t get a letter or the cash has not been paid into your account by 26 January 2024, contact the winter gas fee centre.
Source: information.sky.com”