\n While many older people are too proud to claim, he says it’s a key gateway benefit, which allows other payments such as Cold Weather Payments, Warm Home Discount (a payment of \u00a3150 into their electricity account once per year for those receiving the Pension Credit Guarantee Credit), a free TV licence for the over 75s, and help with rent and council tax bills.\n<\/p>\n
\n But unfortunately, the DWP\u2019s latest estimates suggest that in 2023\/24 more than 1 in 3 (38%) of pensioners entitled to Pension Credit failed to take up their entitlement – that’s around 820,000 pensioners. Even with the surge in claims in 2024\/25, it is likely that hundreds of thousands of pensioners are still missing out.\n<\/p>\n
\n Sir Steve Webb says: “The good news however is that they can backdate any claim by up to 3 months, so they won\u2019t miss out on the Cold Weather Payments that have already been triggered before they claimed.”\n<\/p>\n
DWP Cold Weather Payments and Pension Credit<\/p>\n
\n The Government has confirmed that sub-zero temperatures across large parts of the UK have now triggered the first \u2018Cold Weather Payments\u2019 of the 2025\/26 Winter. Payments are triggered where there are sub zero temperatures in a local area for seven consecutive days.\n<\/p>\n
\n Residents in those areas qualify for a \u00a325 lump sum payment, but only if they are on a qualifying benefit such Pension Credit or Universal Credit. There is no separate application process for Cold Weather Payments \u2013 they are \u2018passported\u2019 benefits for those who have successfully claimed Pension Credit or UC.\n<\/p>\n
\n Individuals can claim pension credit in a range of ways, including:\n<\/p>\n
\n Recommended reading:\n<\/p>\n
\n Sir Steve, who is now a pension consultant at LCP, says: \u201cThe bitterly cold weather will have led many older people in particular to turn the heating up. But energy bills can be a real worry for lower income households, and some may be afraid to heat their home properly because of the cost.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Claiming pension credit is an easy way for lower income pensioners not only to boost their weekly income but also to qualify for help with energy bills, including Cold Weather Payments when it is literally freezing cold.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Over a million pensioners already receive Pension Credit but hundreds of thousands more are missing out, and I would encourage anyone who thinks they might be entitled to make a claim.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While many older people are too proud to claim, he says it’s a key gateway benefit, which allows…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366851,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[84,4176,4174,4175,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-366850","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-finance","10":"tag-personal-finance","11":"tag-personalfinance","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}