Reeves condemns 700,000 retirees to freeze as Winter Fuel deadline approaches | Personal Finance | Finance

This window of opportunity has now passed and the outlook is bleak for the large number of retirees who will not benefit from its commitment.

Pension Credit is a means-tested top-up which increases a single person’s income to £218.15 per week or £332.95 for couples.

A successful application serves as a gateway to additional state support of £3,900, including help with heating costs, council tax and housing benefit.

Crucially, only those eligible for Pension Credit now benefit from the Winter Fuel Payment, worth up to £300 a year.

In a desperate attempt to quell fury over her decision to scrap the payment, Reeves said she would launch a campaign to get more people to claim the pension credit.

It was a necessity because around 760,000 cash-strapped pensioners who were entitled to Pension Credit had not applied for it by March last year.

Reeves said she would make things right. But now the deadline has fallen on his efforts.

Yesterday was the last chance to apply for pension credit for the ‘reference week’ September 16-22 and get winter fuel payment.

It is too early to say how many applicants have been placed under surveillance, but I can make a rough estimate based on past figures.

The removal of the winter fuel payment has sparked a surge in pension credit claims.

In September, Reeves took credit for this, saying, “We now receive over 10,000 applications per week, up from about 3,000 per week.” »

I’m not sure there’s anything to brag about. This just shows how desperate people were to get help with their heating bills as winter approached.

Furthermore, there is a big difference between applying for pension credit and getting it.

While Reeves celebrated a rush of claims, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) worked to reject half of them.

Between April and December 1, only 91,000 of 183,000 pension credit applications were accepted, according to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

In the first eight weeks since Reeves announced she was eliminating the winter fuel payment on July 29, about 74,400 people have claimed.

That’s 9,300 per week.

Now let’s say only half succeeded. That’s 4,650 per week, or 37,200 in that eight-week period to September 16.

That left just over 13 weeks until the December 31 deadline, which could suggest an additional 60,450 accepted applications.

These are calculations on the back of the packets, but it’s the best I can do. Presumably we won’t get official figures from the DWP for weeks or months.

Yet they tell a dark story.

Even if 60,000 additional pensioners applied, around 700,000 of the poorest would still not benefit from pension credit.

That’s a lot of retirees who will have even more difficulty heating their homes and feeding their families this winter.

The idea that Reeves would significantly increase the take-up of Pension Credit was for the birds. The DWP has been making half-hearted efforts for years.

In reality, Reeves condemned more than 700,000 retirees to a cold, harsh winter.

Some 2.5 million people are just past the Pension Credit cut-off date but still do not have enough income to live a dignified life. That’s a staggering one in four.

They may earn just over £11,350 a year, but have still lost out on their winter fuel payment.

Most are actually much poorer than those on Pension Credit, as they do not benefit from this £3,900 in extra help.

They face a terrifying winter knowing they won’t get that money. The claim deadline passed yesterday. Today, the bitter reality sets in.