£200 state pensioner Winter Fuel Payment delay underway in September
A £200 state pensioner Winter Fuel Payment is being delayed for these older people in September.
The £200 Winter Fuel Payment will be delayed for these older people in September (Image: Getty)
Some older people who would have been eligible for a £200 Winter Fuel Payment this winter coming will not be able to get the money after all thanks to another state pension age rise taking effect this September.
After years of mostly unpopular changes to the Winter Fuel Payment system, the £200 to £300 payment is back to being universally sent out to all state pensioners this winter, though if you earn more than £35,000, you’ll have to repay the whole payment back to HMRC in tax.
But the state pension age rise, which is being phased in across a two-year period between 2026 and 2028, will mean that some people who would have been able to get the payment this winter will now not be eligible for the money after all.
The State Pension age is currently in the process of rising from age 66 to 67, with the next phase of the change getting underway this month from September 6. The age increase is being introduced gradually over a two-year period which is due to complete in 2028, and will delay the point at which people with a 66th birthday within this timeframe become eligible for the State Pension and, in turn, other pension-age benefits and handouts, such as the Winter Fuel Payment.
If you were born between September 6, 1960, and October 5, 1960, you won’t be eligible to receive a Winter Fuel Payment until six months after you turn 66, delaying the point at which you can start receiving the £200 payment until at least March 6, 2027, by which point you will have passed the qualifying week and no longer be eligible for the payment this winter at all.
That’s because the ‘qualifying week’ to be eligible for the Winter Fuel Payment is September 21 to 28, 2026. So if you turn 66 on September 6 or later, you would previously have been able to get a state pension, and with it, a Winter Fuel Payment, but instead you have to wait until March, which is long after the qualifying week. It means you won’t be able to receive the Winter Fuel Payment until next winter, 2026-2027.
Explaining the impact of the age rise, Clare Moffat, Pension and Tax Expert at Royal London, told the Express: “Raising the State Pension age doesn’t just affect when people can claim their State Pension, it also means some older people will have to wait longer before they can access valuable financial support.”
Andy Burnham savaged as one in five UK working age adults now on benefits
Critics warn it is “unfair to taxpayers footing the bill” and Britain “can’t afford” it.
Andy Burnham is under pressure to get a grip on the benefits bill. (Image: Getty)
One in five working-age Brits is on universal credit, according to new research. Some 7.3 million people aged between 20 and 64 in England and Wales were receiving the benefit as of May 2026, the analysis by the Taxpayers’ Alliance found.
That includes 3.3 million under 40, with 1.3 million in their 20s. The research showed that 54 council areas have a quarter of the working-age population on benefits, which are for people who are jobless or on a low income to help with living costs.
William Yarwood, campaigns director at the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “In some places, dependency on universal credit has become endemic.
“Generations are being dumped on benefits: written off and condemned to a life of dependency as ministers make it harder for them to find a job.
“If Andy Burnham was serious about growth in every postcode, he would be making it more affordable to hire young people.”
Councils with the highest proportion of older people on universal credit are concentrated in London, including more than half of those in their 50s and 60s in Tower Hamlets.
Coastal towns such as Thanet, Great Yarmouth and Hartlepool tend to have more younger people on benefits.
Blackpool was the local authority with the largest share of the working-age population claiming universal credit at 35.2%.
Tory shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately warned it is “unfair to taxpayers footing the bill” and that Britain “can’t afford” it.
She added: “I’ve been to benefit hotspots like Blackpool, where welfare has become a way of life. This has to stop. A generation of talent is also being wasted when young people sign up for welfare instead of starting work.
“It’s clear Andy Burnham — like his predecessor — does not have the backbone to reform welfare. He said himself he puts social security before national security.”
A Department for Work and Pensions spokesperson said: “Three-quarters of the increase in Universal Credit cases since July 2024 is driven by people moving from legacy benefits – a transition started by the previous Government.
“Many people receiving Universal Credit are already in employment, and our reforms will go further to tackle the perverse incentives that discourage work, and we’re investing £3.5 billion in employment support for disabled people and people with long-term conditions.
“We’re putting work and opportunity at the heart of the system, and the final recommendations from the Timms and Milburn Reviews will lay the foundation for sustainable reform.”