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Winter Fuel Payment - I'll be 63 when I get it
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I was attempting to answer! How are the DWP to know which families treat finances as one unit and which don't? All pensions are paid individually. I thought that this was a payment that was made automatically to people of the qualifying ages, I didn't think a claim was necessary! I don't recall either of us claiming this payment and no one asked us how we wanted it paid. It just arrives in our separate bank accounts. And how are 'finances treated as a unit' anyway? Does one person get all the money and the other get none? That doesn't sound very fair, does it?
Before I found wisdom, I became old.
We have a joint bank account for payment of bills only. We each pay into it from our own current accounts, and that's where the WFP arrives. We were never asked where we wanted the WFP paid to, in fact I don't recall ever being asked if we wanted it at all. It just arrives along with our SRP. I have often said that it would make more sense to receive it into the account from which the bills get paid, but that doesn't seem to have ever been possible.
In post #35 I attempted to answer the second of the questions which you posed in #34. I believe that others have made it clear that, where one spouse is the qualifying age and the other not, the elder will receive £200. When the younger spouse achieves the qualifying age they will receive £100 each.
Goldiegirl's post makes it clear that nowadays people are being sent an application form when they reach the qualifying age. It is then their choice whether they apply or not. I don't know - Goldiegirl may say - whether the form asks which bank account should be used for the payment. We never had to apply - it simply arrived.
Before I found wisdom, I became old.
Swings and roundabouts means that I should qualify for some other treat by one day.......but treats do seem in short supply these days.
Ski on peoples.
..._
This link would suggest that - assuming the couple are occupying the same household - that it's only possible if the original recipient is receiving Pension Credit, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA), income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), or Income Support. In that scenario, they appear to continue to receive the entire amount for the household, leaving the other with nothing.
https://www.gov.uk/winter-fuel-payment/what-youll-get
Thank you, just what I was looking for.
No you can't save the government time and (our) money you have to have one each.
These are all means-tested benefits. This explains how it happens, but only in those particular circumstances. If you qualify for means-tested benefits the tests are applied to the couple as a 'household'. This is therefore the ONLY kind of situation in which the words 'it is a given' can be applied.
In the case of all other couples, those who do not receive any means-tested benefit, they are paid as individuals and therefore, in the case of WFP, they receive half each.
Before I found wisdom, I became old.
There's not so closed minded as those that will not read.
It is a given means I am TELLING you that there is one joint bank account and the recipients want to receive one WFA of £200. This seems totally logical and the obviousl best way to do this.
However, it transpires that you cannot receive £200 WFA if there is another qualified person in the household. So by law, and we all know the law is an !!!, you have to receive twio payments.
This was a system devised by civil servants who are the ones who reckon they run the country - explains a lot.
I think the expression you are looking for is "if the cap fits, wear it"! MargaretClare and others have patiently tried to explain that if the spouse is older, and the sole pensioner, in the household, they receive £200 WFA, and when the younger spouse qualifies, then they each receive £100.
That is the way it is operated, the same way as the £10 Christmas bonus is allocated, per pensioner. MargaretClare is always very helpful to posters and I find it hard to understand your responses to her. If you are TELLING us that you "want" to receive one single payment, then may I ask why?
xx
Start again. We are told that there is only one joint account, and two recipients of WFP. So, if there is only one bank account, both pensioners will - correct me if I'm wrong - both receive their SRP and any other pension payments into it. They'll each have to receive their WFP into the same account, the joint account, because there isn't anywhere else for it to go. So what is the argument all about? Is it because the payment arrives as £100 x 2 showing up on the bank statement, and not £200 x 1?
Before I found wisdom, I became old.