Pensioners cost of living payment

lisyloo

Robin9 said:

My wife has been doubly disappointed.

65 last month as she once expecting her pension at 60 , she has realised she will miss the 2023 qualifying date in September 2023

I realised this in 1995 and hope to retire at age 57 - maybe later as I love my job.
When did your wife realise the changes?

Robin9

She knew about the pension at 66 a long time ago - only the WFA aspect when I showed her my letter 

friendam

[Deleted User] said:

Winter Fuel Allowance has always been paid on an individual basis. DWP payment notifications to couples rarely come together. My wife got her letter last week, and I am still waiting for mine.

Over recent years, we have become a very impatient society with constant demands for instant answers: often the answers are widely available from a number of authoritative online sources. Even my wife who is a technophobe manages to find/research information on things on the Web that matter to her. The Government may be poor at a lot of things but it has a very good and informative website.

I am not impatient and happy to wait for my notification just wanted clarity on the £250 amount because as a couple last year we received £200 WFA. I have researched and looked at everything available on line thank you including the government sites. I thought as a newbie this was supposed to be a kind informative site if someone was seeking clarity rather than getting a lecture! 

jbuchanangb

My wife and I have received individual letters for the WFA £250 each. The letter explains that this includes "Pensioner Cost of Living Payment" for this year only.

ariarnia

friendam said:

[Deleted User] said:

Winter Fuel Allowance has always been paid on an individual basis. DWP payment notifications to couples rarely come together. My wife got her letter last week, and I am still waiting for mine.

Over recent years, we have become a very impatient society with constant demands for instant answers: often the answers are widely available from a number of authoritative online sources. Even my wife who is a technophobe manages to find/research information on things on the Web that matter to her. The Government may be poor at a lot of things but it has a very good and informative website.

I am not impatient and happy to wait for my notification just wanted clarity on the £250 amount because as a couple last year we received £200 WFA. I have researched and looked at everything available on line thank you including the government sites. I thought as a newbie this was supposed to be a kind informative site if someone was seeking clarity rather than getting a lecture! 

hopefully you have been reasured by the info given and your letter will arrive soon. but if not the letter then the payment into your account. if theres any problems you can phone the dwp or come back here (but depending on the problem the response will probably be your best bet is to phone the dwp) 

griffb

Last year my wife's letter arrived, and was dated, a week after mine; this year wife's has arrived first

Spoonie_Turtle

Robin9 said:

She knew about the pension at 66 a long time ago - only the WFA aspect when I showed her my letter 

Then as a pensioner yourself, presumably the only one in the household, you should be getting the full £500 so unless she was hoping for another £500 herself, she's not missing out on anything.

Spoonie_Turtle

[Deleted User] said:

The Government may be poor at a lot of things but it has a very good and informative website.

I consider myself reasonably well-versed in the matters of benefits and how the government phrases things, but still had to read the table a few times when I first visited the WFP page as I was not understanding it.  Similarly the OP evidently didn't fully understand the table at first either.  I don't know how it could have been made clearer, to be fair, but the way they've chosen can take a bit of processing.

[Deleted User]

Spoonie_Turtle said:

[Deleted User] said:

The Government may be poor at a lot of things but it has a very good and informative website.

I consider myself reasonably well-versed in the matters of benefits and how the government phrases things, but still had to read the table a few times when I first visited the WFP page as I was not understanding it.  Similarly the OP evidently didn't fully understand the table at first either.  I don't know how it could have been made clearer, to be fair, but the way they've chosen can take a bit of processing.

I don’t want to prolong this exchange but the OP’s spouse has received the annual DWP letter. The DWP letter is addressed to an individual and it explains the breakdown of the money.

The letter also states:

You qualify for the £250 because you:

. were born on or before 25 September 1956

. were living with someone else who qualifies

The OP’s concern was therefore addressed in the letter. 

My point about not contacting the DWP was that all enquiries cost the taxpayer time and money. On the news this lunchtime, the Government has delayed the introduction of the Social Care Cap - which would have generated more money for social care - because Councils cannot afford to fund the extra staff needed to process the applications. As a country we are broke and, collectively, we need to wake up to this fact. As the Daily Telegraph today suggests ‘The Covid bill has arrived and no one wants to pay it’.

casjen

When the extra payment was announce it said that it would be another extra WFA so if you get £300 then it would be another £300. However on receiving letter this week it gives a total of £500 which is an extra £200 not £300. The gov web site indicated you have to be over 80 to get the £ 300. This was not how it was originally announced as far as i remember