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Winter Fuel Payments

Volume 472: debated on Friday 7 March 2008

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many households (a) with more than £100,000 annual income and (b) in each household income decile have (i) one member and (ii) two members in receipt of (A) £100 a week, (B) £150 a week, (C) £200 a week and (D) £300 a week winter fuel payment. (189136)

The information is not available in the format requested.

An annual winter fuel payment of £200 is paid to a person aged 60 or over living at home (£100 if they share a home with someone else eligible for a winter fuel payment—this may be a spouse, partner, sibling or friend). £300 is payable to a person payments are available to almost all people aged 60 or over. Eligibility is not based on income; they were designed to give older people reassurance that they could turn up their heating in winter.

In 2005-06, the latest year for which details are available, Winter Fuel Payments were made to around 100,000 households containing pensioners with equivalised total annual income above £100,000.

The available information on the distribution of winter fuel payment by income decile is given in the following table.

£ million

Equilivalised income decile (after housing costs)

Number of households containing pensioners in receipt of winter fuel payments

Decile 1 (lowest incomes)

0.6

Decile 2

0.8

Decile 3

1.4

Decile 4

1.2

Decile 5

1.1

Decile 6

0.9

Decile 7

0.8

Decile 8

0.8

Decile 9

0.7

Decile 10 (highest incomes)

0.6

Notes: 1. Data are provided on an after housing costs basis, which is our preferred measure for Pensioners. 2. These statistics employ the same methodology as the Department for Work and Pensions publication ‘Households Below Average Income' (HBAI) series, which uses disposable household income, adjusted (or “equivalised”) for household size and composition, as an income measure as a proxy for standard of living. These figures are based on OECD equivalisation factors. 3. The figures are survey based and based in part on imputed information. In 2005-06, WFPs were made to 8.2 million households. Source: Family Resources Survey 2005-06.