Winter Fuel Payments

BelindaDido

Hi
I am a married female, aged 64. I claimed my state pension at the appropriate age (60 years and 3 months?) and also received the Winter Fuel Payment in November/December 2010 (£250).

Then we discovered that my husband (also born 1950) was entitled to claim the Winter Fuel Payment even though he wasn't old enough to claim his state pension, so he submitted a claim and the next year we each received half the Winter Fuel Payment (2 x £100 - George Osborne had reduced it from £250 to £200 in 2011).

In April 2013, as I was still working (now part-time) as well as receiving a DB index-linked pension from a previous job (from which I had been made redundant and, as a result, had been obliged to start receiving my occupational pension), I decided to defer claiming my state pension - previously I had been saving my state pension but interest rates were low and interest was taxable and it seemed to make more financial sense to defer it and reap the benefits of the 10% p.a. increase, especially bearing in mind that my mother and several maternal and paternal aunts lived into their late 80s and early 90s.

In November/December 2013 I didn't receive any Winter Fuel Payment, but my husband (who is still fully employed) received the full amount (£200).

Although as a joint household we have received the full amount of Winter Fuel Payment, I was surprised that, just because I had deferred receipt of my state pension, someone apparently decided that I shouldn't receive a share of the Winter Fuel Payment. Is this something that other people in a similar situation have also noticed? Can anyone provide a web link that mentions that this is what will happen if you defer your state pension? (No doubt someone will claim that the Payment Centre didn't have verified up-to-date details of my postal address and/or bank account, and so couldn't contact me to find out what I wanted!)

If I had not been married or if my husband hadn't previously applied for Winter Fuel Payment, what would have happened to my/our £200 in 2013 and in 2014 and... i.e. until I decide to start claiming my state pension? Is the Winter Fuel Allowance also deferred in these cases?

I assume that I could contact the Winter Fuel Payment Centre to re-register but I don't think the onus should be on me to so do. Perhaps, when people request deferment of state pension, they should be reminded about the Winter Fuel Allowance and should be asked what they want to happen to it.

le_loup

Lot of worry over nothing. Your household get £200. Why worry about the split? So many "ifs" in your comment and there could be a thousand more. But life is short. Worry about the things that make a difference.

atush

Like means testing of winter fuel payments in future?

xylophone

I notice that in this sheet http://www.nidirect.gov.uk/state-pension-deferral-how-do-you-decide-what-to-do produced for Northern Ireland it says

"Winter Fuel Payment and State Pension deferral
The Winter Fuel Payment is not connected to the State Pension. Most people get the Winter Fuel Payment if they are over State Pension age for women and living in Northern Ireland or Britain."

But perhaps if there is another person in the household claiming the state pension while the other isn't, the recipient gets the whole amount?

greenglide

For people who are in receipt of state pension (or any of the many "qualifying" benefits) winter fuel payments are issued automatically in November / December.

Anyone who is not receiving a benefit (which includes people who have previously received a benefit) needs to apply when they become entitled. There is a process that sends out an invitation to claim when people reach female SPA (it is probably just males who are mailshotted as females go through the SP claim process).

I assume that if you suspend your state pension you fall down a black hole as, normally, SP is a "for life" benefit. In your case there is no real loss as your not being paid gives your husband the full rate which is the same.

You can claim for Winter Fuel for the next payment and you will both get the shared rate. When you do start claiming SP again the system will pay you winter fuel at the shared rate from the pensions system, stop paying from the winter fuel system and your husband will continue getting his. When he claims SP this will be handled automatically as well. If he were to defer his SP the WFP would continue automatically as there hasnt been a qualifying benefit paid to confuse things.

greenglide

xylophone wrote: »

I notice that in this sheet http://www.nidirect.gov.uk/state-pension-deferral-how-do-you-decide-what-to-do produced for Northern Ireland it says

"Winter Fuel Payment and State Pension deferral
The Winter Fuel Payment is not connected to the State Pension. Most people get the Winter Fuel Payment if they are over State Pension age for women and living in Northern Ireland or Britain."

But perhaps if there is another person in the household claiming the state pension while the other isn't, the recipient gets the whole amount?

Hmm. Although WFP and SP "are not connected" the system which pays SP also issues Winter Fuel Payments as well so there is a connection!

A household with one member getting SP and the other over female SPA but not getting benefit qualifies for two shared rate payments.

The main complication is the men over female SPA but under male SPA (like me ) who qualify for WFP. A complete system just to pay us!

System

You get the allowance "if you were born on or before 5 July 1952." says the gov website.
I get the allowance although neither I nor my wife have reached our SRAs.

anmarj

greenglide wrote: »

Hmm. Although WFP and SP "are not connected" the system which pays SP also issues Winter Fuel Payments as well so there is a connection!

A household with one member getting SP and the other over female SPA but not getting benefit qualifies for two shared rate payments.

The main complication is the men over female SPA but under male SPA (like me ) who qualify for WFP. A complete system just to pay us!

They are not connected it is just that in this instance state pension pays it on behalf of the winter fuel. If there is no pension credit in payment then the husband and wife should get a shared payment the same situation should occur when one gets benefits the other does not. If there is no benefit in payment it can't pay the winter fuel via a benefit, so therefore the op should of applied to the winter fuel team to get her half, by the virtue that he got the full payment means there is a discrepancy in the address held for the wife and husband so when the scan was run it did not pick up there being being two people in same household and issue the whole amount rather than the half share. Or they have two properties and hubby is registered at one and the wife at another

BelindaDido

le_loup wrote: »

Lot of worry over nothing. Your household get £200. Why worry about the split? So many "ifs" in your comment and there could be a thousand more. But life is short. Worry about the things that make a difference.

OK, in your opinion I need to get a life, but there may be households where there is less sharing and this could have created problems.

Yes, Atush, I am aware of the debate about WFP and means testing (and similar comments about free bus travel). The alternative view is that if we have contributed through a lifetime of NI payments, we are entitled to receive these 'benefits' without means testing. Those of us who perhaps can manage without WFP can always donate it to charities which do so much good work, especially at Christmas. Many of us have been doing so for several years.

Thanks to others for the informative comments.

I suppose my reason for posting was to alert anyone else thinking of deferring SP after initially claiming it that there might be knock-on effects.

greenglide

It is a benefit that you are entitled to (as am I) so it is quite right to claim it. It is then up to all of us to decide what to do with the money.

You have found one of the loop holes in the automated system, I am certain there are others. At the end of the day it is your responsibility to claim under these circumstances which is fine if you realise!

Where there are two qualifying people in the household "it does not matter" while if there are three your situation would result in an underpayment as each would be entitled to the shared rate.