...even in Spain

Around the start of December almost everyone living in the UK and aged 60 or more should get a tax-free payment of between £50 and £500 to help with the cost of winter fuel, council tax and other expenses.

The winter fuel payment was one of the first innovations of the new Labour Government which came to power in 1997. From that winter every pensioner household got £20 towards the cost of their winter fuel bills with £50 for the poorest. At the time many commentators denounced it as a gimmick but the payments have blossomed into a £3 billion a year annual tax free bonus for more than eleven million people aged 60 or more.

But what sounds a simple idea – giving a tax free payment each year to older people to help with the costs of winter fuel bills – has had to be spatchcocked onto what the Government’s Pension Commission has called the most complex pension system in the world. For the last two years the Chancellor has added another similar payment but with different qualifying conditions to help with council tax bills and other expenses. But that arrives with the winter fuel payment in December rather than in April when council tax bills thud onto mats. The payments are full of other anomalies. Some people can get them abroad where they do not have winters. Others in care homes are missed out even though they pay towards fuel and council tax in their fees. The full guide to the payments runs to 52 pages with another 12 if you live outside the UK. So, like Sydney Carton in A Tale of Two Cities, wrap a towel soaked in cold water round your head, and read on.

Winter Fuel
If you were born on 25 September 1945 or earlier you should be getting a winter fuel payment during December. It is £200 per household. So couples get £100 each. But if they get Pension Credit the £200 is just paid to one of them. If more than two over 60s share a home they get £100 each, though if any of them get Pension Credit the rules are a bit more complex. Most people will get it automatically. But if you are aged 60 and have not had a payment in previous years and do not get a state pension then you should claim your winter fuel payment. Otherwise you may not get it.

If you are aged 60 and have not had a payment in previous years and do not get a state pension or other benefit claim your winter fuel payment. Otherwise you may not get it.

That is not just a theoretical risk. More than half a million men aged 60-64 do not get the winter fuel payment. Claims for this year’s payment must be made by 30 March 2006.

If you are aged 80 or more then the winter fuel payment is £300. The Government should know your age but if you were born on 25 September 1925 or earlier make sure you get £300. If you share your home with someone aged 60-79 you will get £200 and they will get £100. If both of you are over 80 you will get £150 each. If you claim Pension Credit the whole £300 will be paid with that.

Age-related payment
As well as the winter fuel payment there is now another amount – the age-related payment – which is intended to help with council tax bills. It is paid to people who are 65, which means born on 25 September 1940 or earlier, and is also £200 with the same rules for couples and others sharing accommodation. People who get the guarantee element of pension credit do not get the £200. Instead they get just £50 to help with general expenses and they have to be 70 rather than 65 to qualify.

The winter fuel payment and the age-related payment are tax-free and will not affect any other benefit including Pension Credit or council tax benefit. Both payments are made simply on your age – it does not matter if you pay fuel bills or the council tax or not.

Exceptions
If you live in a care home then special – and weird – rules apply. If you had been in the home for less than 13 weeks on 25 September 2005 then the payment is the same as if you were living in your own home. If you have been there for 13 weeks or more then what you get depends on your entitlement to Pension Credit. If you get the guarantee element of pension credit you do not get either payment. If you get the savings element of pension credit (but not the guarantee element) you cannot get the winter fuel payment but you can get the age-related payment, normally paid at £100. If you pay your own way and do not get pension credit then you can both payments (depending on your age) as if you were sharing accommodation. If you are the only person in the care home who gets the age-related payment it will be £200 rather than £100.

You will not get a winter fuel payment or an age-related payment if you are in hospital and have been there for more than a year nor if you are serving a prison sentence, nor, usually, if you are a foreign national subject to immigration control.

Previous years
If you have missed a payment in the past it is still possible to claim for 1997/98 and 1998/99, when it was £20, and 1999/2000 when it was £100. It is not possible to get missed payments for more recent years. To get the payment you must have been born on 11 January 1938 or earlier (for 1997/98), 15 November 1938 or earlier (for 1998/99), or 26 September 1939 or earlier (for 1999/2000) and you must have been living in the UK on 5 January 1998, 15 November 1998 or 26 September 1999.

Abroad
The payments cannot normally be paid if you live abroad. However, if you qualify for the payment while living in the UK and you then move to one of 29 countries the winter fuel payment can be made to you there. These countries are Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden, as well as Switzerland from 1 June 2002 and Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia from 1 May 2004.

France includes its overseas territories Martinique and Guadeloupe in the Caribbean, Réunion in the Indian Ocean tropics and French Guiana on the equatorial coast of South America. The winter fuel payment can be paid in these countries where December temperatures are typically 25-30C. It can also be paid in Spain’s Canary Islands, Ibiza and Majorca as well as the Portuguese Azores and Madeira islands. However, the payments cannot be made in the Channel Islands nor the chilly Isle of Man which are not part of the UK or the EU.

Qualifying for a winter fuel payment abroad will not entitle you to an age-related payment. But you can get this year’s age-related payment in one of the 29 countries if you were in the UK last year and got the one-off payment which was made in 2004 (it was £100 and only paid to people over 70).

What to do
The payments should arrive around the start of December. If you think you are entitled and have had nothing – or the wrong amount – by the third week of December call the winter fuel payments helpline on 08459 15 15 15, (+44 29 2042 8635 if you live abroad). Or check the website www.thepensionservice.gov.uk/winterfuel