Winter Fuel Payments (Hansard, 25 March 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 for this winter and next, 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 receiving a Retirement Pension or one of a number of other qualifying benefits.

The making of this winter'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 fifteen million computer records, involving fifteen qualifying benefits, across nine computer systems. Overall, almost ten million payments will have been made to over seven million pensioner households by the end of March.

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. John Swinney, dated 24 March 1998: The Secretary of State for Social Security has asked me to reply to your recent Parliamentary Questions concerning the payment of winter fuel payments. The making of almost ten million winter fuel payments to over seven million pensioner households before the end of March 1998 has been a challenging task for the Benefits Agency. 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. In order to establish other eligible pensioners, correctly identify pensioner households, and determine the amount each should receive, it was necessary to match around fifteen million computer records, involving fifteen qualifying benefits, across nine 167W computer systems. We expect that every eligible pensioner will have received a payment before the end of March 1998. This has been achieved whilst maintaining normal benefit business. In order to determine whether these eligible pensioners were entitled to a payment of £20 or £10 it was necessary to undertake an exercise of data correlation of all addresses held in Departmental records. Where only one eligible person was identified as living at an address a payment of £20 was made. Where more than one eligible person was identified as living at an address a payment of £10 was made. Where official records showed that an address contained a number of separate households, for example, numbered flats or bedsits, each separately identifiable unit was treated as a separate address for the purposes of determining the number of eligible pensioners in a household. Therefore, where only one common address was recorded for more than one eligible person, it was not possible to determine which, if any, lived in a household where there was no other eligible person. As a result, some eligible pensioners who live alone or are the only eligible person in a household, but share a common address with other eligible person, will have been sent a payment for £10 when they should have received £20. The award letter which accompanies the payment clearly explains the entitlement conditions and informs anyone who receives a £10 payment, but satisfies the conditions for a £20 payment, to contact the Benefits Agency Office which deals with their pensions, or to telephone the Winter fuel Helpline, and request the balance. Requests for review of the original decision to pay £10 are being dealt with as a matter of priority, particularly in the case of tenement residents. So far, fewer than 10,000 of the £50 payments made during January have been identified as being incorrectly made. I am unable at present to provide you with information which takes into account payments of £20 or £10 made incorrectly. This is due to the fact that those payments are still in the process of being issued. it is anticipated that this information will be available some time after the end of April. I will provide the information requested once it is available. Thank you for the opportunity to explain the position.