Money expert Martin Lewis has issued a warning to pensioners on the old state pension this winter.
Unbeknownst to some, there are two different state pension levels for retirees to claim – one is the old ‘basic’ state pension which pays £169 a week and the other is the new state pension of roughly £221 a week.
Those who reached state pension age before April 6 2016 will be on the old basic state pension and today Martin Lewis said that many of those on the old state pension are entitled to Pension Credit and in turn, will get the £300 Winter Fuel Payment – but still aren’t claiming it.
And these people not claiming it are among the poorest in society, Martin added.
He said on ITV1’s Good Morning Britain on Friday, September 27: “The people who the government says has said should get the Winter Fuel Payment is those on Pension Credit. Which is a state top up to people on the lowest incomes.
“And up to 880,000 people on Pension Credit aren’t claiming it.
“Now by definition almost, not quite there’s a couple of nuances, almost everybody entitled to Pension Credit will not be getting the full state pension, because if they did they wouldn’t be getting Pension Credit.
“Therefore they’ll be getting less than the full state pension. So they’ll likely be on the old state pension, which is a lower rise, and they won’t be getting all of it.
“And my big issue is you can look at this whole thing twofold. One, yes, I think the means testing for getting rid of winter fuel payment should be higher, they’ve put it reliant on Pension Credit, that’s basically people earning less than £11,400. But we still haven’t got an answer, the 880,000 poorest pensioners many of whom will have onset dementia, this is the reason they can’t navigate the system, this is why the form is so big, this is why they’re not claiming.
“They are the poorest pensioners in the country they won’t have had that full state pension uplift and yet they’re not getting Winter Fuel Payment.”
If that is you, get in touch with the Pension Credit hotline and make an application – if your weekly income is less than £218 a week or you’re on the basic state pension, or both, you will almost certainly qualify for Pension Credit which will then top up your weekly income and also qualify you for the £300 Winter Fuel Payment.
Martin added: “What are we gonna do about them? Because those are the ones most at risk this winter of not being able to pay their bills.
“And I’ve been shouting about pension credit for over a decade as loud as anyone else and I think even if we did everything now, absolutely everything, we might cut down the number of people eligible who should be claiming down into the 700,000s, but we’re not gonna get much further.”
