MSE News: Over 74? You could be owed backdated energy bill cash

Former_MSE_Helen

"Some could be eligible to claim Winter Fuel Payments for 1997/98, 1998/99 and 1999/2000 - but you need to claim now"

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Over 74? You could be owed backdated energy bill cash



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JAG

Winter Fuel Payments for the winters of 1997/98, 1998/99 and 1999/2000 if they haven't already received the money for these years.

So you would need to check your bank statement from 16 years ago to see if you received the payment or not!

afmfifgh

Did you automatically get it back then or did the person have to claim it. The article was about as clear as mud to me as to the likelyhood of being able to claim.

Can anyone explain please as I know two elderly neighbours who struggle financially who are over 74 so this would be a big boost.

afmfifgh

After re-reading it several times it seems that all you have to have been was over 60 and living in the UK and not meet one or more of the exemptions.

Is that correct?

There is no way the people I know will have bank statements going back that far to check if they got a payment.

macman

Does anyone have the correct DWP department/address in Newcastle to send the form to? It's not given on the form when you download it.

joey2307

Just applied on behalf of my Dad, he wasn't sure if he had it or not so I just wrote "NOT SURE" next to the appropriate questions in Part 3.
What is they say? "If you don't ask you don't get?" !!

Anyway after following link to Government website (rather than the link to the form) I found this address in Wolverhampton.

Winter Fuel Payment Centre
Mail Handling Centre Site A
Wolverhampton
West Midlands
WV98 1LR

90p using First Class Large Letter (I did my online, my local Post Office kind man advised I avoid online postage as nearly all get wrong weight/item/type of postage, but this one is urgent and I got work tomorrow!)

Anyway if you wanna check site for address yourself here it is ...
https://www.gov.uk/winter-fuel-payment/how-to-claim

Thanks Martin/MSE team.

macman

There are also different addresses in Nottingham and Gateshead given, depending on which site you look at. I'm going to phone the helpline in the morning to check,

zerog

I can't believe the responsible govt departments would have accurate records going back 16 years, so I expect most applicants to be successful

macman

I just called the WFP Helpline and the adviser didn't know the correct address, nor was she aware of this particular retrospective claim.
After checking she gave me:

Winter Fuel Payment Centre (Retro Claims)
Department for Work & Pensions
PO Box 22
Gateshead
NE92 1BX

There is also a further WFP centre in Nottingham, adding to the confusion.

afmfifgh

I think the best address is:

Winter Fuel Payment Centre
Mail Handling Site A
Wolverhampton
WV98 1LR

As per the Government website that talks about these payments:

https://www.gov.uk/winter-fuel-payment/how-to-claim

afmfifgh

Just spoke to someone at the DWP in the Winter Fuel Payment department and they said that if the person was getting state pension and/or any state benefit they would have automatically got the payments.

Would that not apply to almost all meaning pretty much everyone would have already had these payments?

The MSE article made no mention of this to my reading of it.