There have been a number of recent representations on the winter fuel payment. These include calls for an increase in the payment, for the payment to be extended to disabled people under 60 years of age and most recently to people receiving disability living allowance who are terminally ill, and for a change in the qualifying week, which is set in legislation as the third full week in September.
If the deadline to qualify for this winter's payment had been the 31 October, around 60,000 more people in Great Britain would have become eligible to receive a payment at an additional cost of approximately £8 million. If the deadline had been the 31 December, around 150,000 more people in Great Britain would have become eligible to receive a payment at an additional cost of approximately £21 million.
The qualifying week for winter fuel payments is set in legislation as the third full week in September. This date is used in order to establish entitlement and make payments before Christmas. If a later date were used, the payment exercise could not be completed in time for the payments to be available by Christmas. We decided to make all automatic payments by Christmas to reassure pensioners that they will have extra money available to pay for heating their homes during the coldest part of the year. If the qualifying week were to be significantly later than it is at present, then payments would have to be made in the early part of the following year. Departmental computer systems are already working to full capacity during the early months of the year to accommodate the uprating of benefits in April. It would not be possible to issue over 11 million winter fuel payments at the same time without putting this at risk.
No assessment has been made of the administrative costs if the qualifying date was changed to either 31 October or 31 December each year but they are likely to be negligible as the same processes would be used.