Winter Fuel Payment

subjecttocontract

I'm happy to accept what is in effect a tax free, interest free, loan of £100 even if they are going to take it back very, very slowly over the next year. 

HarryIb

Forgive my ignorance on this related matter, but is the winter fuel payment assessment based on a household or an individual? A friend of mine earns well over £100k pa and his wife is expecting to get the payment. She gets the state pension and has a small private pension; the total is far less than the threshold.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

subjecttocontract said:

I'm happy to accept what is in effect a tax free, interest free, loan of £100 even if they are going to take it back very, very slowly over the next year. 

According to this accountancy site it will be two years being paid in one at some point, slightly less slowly 😳

https://www.taxadvisermagazine.com/article/202526-winter-fuel-payments-and-pension-age-winter-heating-payments-ps35000-income-limit

Dazed_and_C0nfused

HarryIb said:

Forgive my ignorance on this related matter, but is the winter fuel payment assessment based on a household or an individual? A friend of mine earns well over £100k pa and his wife is expecting to get the payment. She gets the state pension and has a small private pension; the total is far less than the threshold.

The payment itself is based on the household, not income, so a younger pensioner couple would get £100 each from DWP (assuming neither had opted out).

But when HMRC look at who has received a payment your friend would have to pay their £100 back whilst the wife would keep hers.

HarryIb

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

HarryIb said:

Forgive my ignorance on this related matter, but is the winter fuel payment assessment based on a household or an individual? A friend of mine earns well over £100k pa and his wife is expecting to get the payment. She gets the state pension and has a small private pension; the total is far less than the threshold.

The payment itself is based on the household, not income, so a younger pensioner couple would get £100 each from DWP (assuming neither had opted out).

But when HMRC look at who has received a payment your friend would have to pay their £100 back whilst the wife would keep hers.

Thanks for the clarification.

subjecttocontract

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

subjecttocontract said:

I'm happy to accept what is in effect a tax free, interest free, loan of £100 even if they are going to take it back very, very slowly over the next year. 

According to this accountancy site it will be two years being paid in one at some point, slightly less slowly 😳

https://www.taxadvisermagazine.com/article/202526-winter-fuel-payments-and-pension-age-winter-heating-payments-ps35000-income-limit

As I do a self assessment I won't need to pay my November Winter Fuel payment back until January 2027......it's a pity it wasn't considerably more.

p00hsticks

HarryIb said:

Dazed_and_C0nfused said:

HarryIb said:

I got a letter today from the DWP telling me that I'm getting a Winter Fuel Payment of £200. Hip, hip, hooray! I'll use the money to increase my shareholding in Drax, the power generation company. However, the payment is only a short-term gain. I'm informed in the letter that if my pre-tax income is above £35k (it is) then the combined chumpery of DWP, HMRC and the Whitehall Blob will conspire to claw back the money via my tax code. You could not make it up! No wonder the country is going down the pan. Fine; I don't need this money, but why give it to me in the first place? If pointless bureaucracy and stupidity such as this were stamped on there might just be enough money in the coffers to allow a universal winter fuel payment.
BTW, I wish those buffoons at DWP would learn to write letters correctly. They use Dear [Christian name] [surname] rather than Dear [title] [surname], and there's no Yours sincerely. Pathetic!

If you didn't want to receive the payment and have your tax code messed with then you could simply have opted out.

The timeframe for doing that, for this payment, has now passed though.

https://www.gov.uk/winter-fuel-payment/report-change-circumstances

The whole thing is just ridiculously complicated; good old Rachel!

Well, playing devil's advocate, 'good old Rachel's' original proposal was to scrap the whole thing for everyone other than those receiving Pension Credit, which would have been very simple to administer.  It was only the back-peddling after all the hue and cry from disgruntled pensioners and other parties that's led to this hastily cobbled  together scheme. 

My understanding is that the payment of Winter Fuel Allowance is extremely difficult to administer, as, with the exception of those claiming Pension Credit, DWP don't as a rule hold permanent details on what constitutes a pensioner 'household'. 

maman

Completely agree @p00hsticks.

I'm sure most would agree that not all pensioners want or need the winter fuel payment but it's really not easy to find a cost effective way of drawing the line to everyone's satisfaction. 

Personally, I think the Chancellor should have stuck to her guns and gone with Pension Credit. There will always be borderline cases wherever the line is drawn. 

subjecttocontract

maman said:

Completely agree @p00hsticks.

I'm sure most would agree that not all pensioners want or need the winter fuel payment but it's really not easy to find a cost effective way of drawing the line to everyone's satisfaction. 

Personally, I think the Chancellor should have stuck to her guns and gone with Pension Credit. There will always be borderline cases wherever the line is drawn. 

Heavens above, thank God you're not the Chancellor or i wouldn't be getting my interest free winter fuel allowance. On a more a serious note, what you call borderline cases are what the rest of us call people in need of financial help with their fuel bills. Some of those people are elderly &/or short of income to pay their bills and need the help. The emphasis should be on those that need help.....which is exactly what they've done.

luvchocolate

I thought she could have set the level to take in housing and council tax benefit plus attendance allowance not just pension credit...but as said impossible to please everyone