Winter Fuel Payments (Hansard, 3 February 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. This is the first time that any Government have made a payment to all pensioners towards their heating costs.

This is an enormous and unprecedented exercise, involving the making of around 10 million payments to over 7 million pensioner households at a total cost of around £200 million.

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. David Bendel, dated 2 February 1998: The Secretary of State for Social Security has asked me to reply to your recent Parliamentary Questions asking; what will be the impact on the timetable for winter fuel payments, of the need to send out new payments to those pensioners whose first payments were wrongly dated; and how many pensioners will still be due to received this year's winter fuel payments after March 1998. There will be no impact on the original timetable for Winter Fuel Payments. Arrangements were made to ensure those pensioners, whose first payments were wrongly dated, received replacement girocheques by 31 January 1998. Priority has been given to issuing payments to the poorest pensioners—those who are receiving Income Support or income based Jobseekers Allowance. A total of 1,441,614 payments of £50 have been issued, as at 31 January 1998. This does not include the small number of clerical payments made locally. It is estimated that almost a further 8.5 million pensioners will be entitled to payment of £20 or £10. Where there is only one eligible pensioner in a household, or they are of no fixed abode, they will receive £20; otherwise each eligible pensioner will receive £10. Around fifteen million computer records will be matched to identify each eligible pensioner and determine the correct amount due. Based on current planning assumptions, we expect this process to be completed by the beginning of March. The process of producing a payment for each eligible pensioner will then begin. The intention is to issue the payments as quickly as possible, but at the same time manage both capacity and continue to deliver normal benefit services. The great majority of payments will be made by the end of March, but we will continually review the project plan, with the aim of improving on the delivery timescales, if at all possible. Thank you for the opportunity to explain the position and I apologise for any inconvenience caused.