Winter Fuel Payments (Hansard, 1 April 1998)

§ Mr. Denham

Winter Fuel payments are one of a number of initiatives the Government have taken to help vulnerable people, especially the elderly, keep warm in the winter. A total of £400 million has been committed over the next two years (1997–98 and 1998–99), to help pensioners with fuel bills to pay. This is the first time any Government have provided additional help with heating costs to all pensioners living in the United Kingdom who receive a Retirement Pension or one of a number of other qualifying benefits.

The making of this year's payments has been an enormous and unprecedented exercise. In order to establish all eligible pensioners, correctly identify pensioner households, and determine the amount each should receive, it was necessary to correlate data in around 15 million computer records, involving 15 qualifying benefits, across 586W nine computer systems. Overall, almost 10 million pensioners, in over 7 million households, have received a payment.

The administration of winter fuel payments is a matter for Peter Mathison, Chief Executive of the Benefits Agency. He will write to the hon. Member.

Letter from Peter Mathison to Mr. Paul Marsden, dated 31 March 1998: The Secretary of State for Social Security has asked me to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking what factors determine which method of payment is used for the winter fuel payment. The making of winter fuel payments to almost ten million eligible pensioners, in over seven million households, before the end of March 1998 has been a challenging task for the Benefits Agency. This will have been achieved whilst maintaining normal benefit business. Around one and a half million of the poorest pensioners, those receiving Income Support or income-based Jobseeker's Allowance, received their payment of £50 during January. A further 8.3 million eligible pensioners received a payment of £20 or £10 during March. Where they live alone, are the only eligible pensioner in a household, or are of no fixed abode, they are entitled to £20; otherwise, they are entitled to £10. Three different methods of payment have been used to make the payments to all eligible pensioners. A number of factors were taken into account in determining the appropriate method. The factors included: the normal method of payment used by the customer to receive their benefit; the ability of the relevant benefit system to make one-off payments by a number of different methods; the speed in which payments could be made; and, the cost and timescales required to introduce new methods of payment to individual computer systems. Payments have been made by the three routes as follows: —Automated Credit Transfer (ACT) direct to the pensioner's bank or building society account where the qualifying benefit is paid in this way (except where the qualifying benefit was Income Support, income-based Jobseeker's Allowance, Invalid Care Allowance, an industrial injury benefit, or one administered by the War Pensions Agency); —Payable order sent to the pensioner's home address, where the qualifying benefit is Invalid Care Allowance, an industrial injury benefit, or one administered by the War Pensions Agency; otherwise, —Girocheque sent to the pensioner's home address or the Post Office where the pensioner collects their qualifying benefit. The decision to send girocheques to the pensioner's Post Office was based on the fact that these customers represented by far the largest qualifying group and this was considered the most secure method of payment for them. Thank you for the opportunity to explain the position.