THE Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has issued an update to state pensioners who could miss out on the Winter Fuel Payment.

The Government department said it will get in touch with those claiming Housing Benefit but not Pension Credit.

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You can claim the two benefits at the same time, with Pension Credit unlocking the up to £300 Winter Fuel Payment, but tens of thousands who can are not.

In response to Labour MP Paula Barker, Sir Stephen Timms, a minister at the DWP, said it was working with councils to boost the uptake of Pension Credit.

Sir Stephen also said the DWP will be directly contacting pensioners who are receiving Housing Benefit that may be eligible for Pension Credit in November to encourage them to claim.

A DWP spokesperson added: “We will be writing to 120,000 pensioner households in receipt of Housing Benefit but who are not currently claiming Pension Credit as they may be eligible.

“We urge anyone who thinks they may be entitled to Pension Credit to check their eligibility and apply.”

It comes after the Government announced a major change to the eligibility criteria for the Winter Fuel Payment.

The up to £300 payment used to be issued to anyone of state pension age, currently 66, or older.

But the Government has now made it means-tested meaning only those on certain benefits receive it.

You now only receive it if you are on one of the following benefits:

• Pension Credit
• Universal Credit
• income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
• income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA)
• Income Support
• Child Tax Credit
• Working Tax Credit

The Social Fund Winter Fuel Payments Regulation 2024 reduces the number of people receiving a Winter Fuel Payment in England and Wales from 10.8million to 1.5million.

The Government estimates the move will save it £1.3billion this financial year and £1.5billion per financial year after this year.

However, hundreds of thousands will miss out on the Winter Fuel Payment because they are not claiming Pension Credit despite being eligible.

The Government is in a drive to get as many people on to the benefit which not only unlocks the £300 payment but is worth on average £3,900 a year.

What is Pension Credit and who is eligible?

Pension Credit is a Government benefit designed to top up your weekly income if you are a state pensioner with low earnings.

The current state pension age is 66.

There are two parts to the benefit – Guarantee Credit and Savings Credit.

Guarantee Credit tops up your weekly income to £218.15 if you are single or your joint weekly income to £332.95 if you have a partner.

Savings Credit is extra money you get if you have some savings or your income is above the basic full state pension amount – £169.50.

Savings Credit is only available to people who reached state pension age before April 6, 2016.

Usually, you only qualify for Pension Credit if your income is below the £218.15 or £332.95 thresholds.

However, you can sometimes be eligible for Savings Credit or Guarantee Credit depending on your circumstances.

For example, if you are suffering from a severe disability and claiming Attendance Allowance, as well as other benefits, you can get an extra £81.50 a week.

Meanwhile, you can get either £66.29 a week or £76.79 a week for each child you’re responsible and caring for.

The rules behind who qualifies for Pension Credit can be complicated, so the best thing to do is just check.

You can do this by calling the Pension Service helpline on 0800 99 1234 from 8am to 5pm Monday to Friday or by using free online calculators.

Those in Northern Ireland have to call the Pension Centre on 0808 100 6165 from 9am to 4pm Monday to Friday.

It might be worth a visit to your local Citizens Advice branch too – its staff should be able to offer you help for free.

Pension Credit is known as a “gateway” benefit which means it opens up a host of perks, like the winter fuel payment and a free TV licence if you are 75 or older.

It also unlocks discounts on your council tax and the Warm Home Discount, if you are on the Guarantee Credit part of the benefit.

What is the Winter Fuel Payment?

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Consumer reporter Sam Walker explains all you need to know about the payment.

The Winter Fuel Payment is an annual tax-free benefit designed to help cover the cost of heating through the colder months.

Most who are eligible receive the payment automatically.

Those who qualify are usually told via a letter sent in October or November each year.

If you do meet the criteria but don’t automatically get the Winter Fuel Payment, you will have to apply on the government’s website.

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You’ll qualify for a Winter Fuel Payment this winter if:

• you were born on or before September 23, 1958
• you lived in the UK for at least one day during the week of September 16 to 22, 2024, known as the “qualifying week”
• you receive Pension Credit, Universal Credit, ESA, JSA, Income Support, Child Tax Credit or Working Tax Credit

If you did not live in the UK during the qualifying week, you might still get the payment if both the following apply:

• you live in Switzerland or a EEA country
• you have a “genuine and sufficient” link with the UK social security system, such as having lived or worked in the UK and having a family in the UK

But there are exclusions – you can’t get the payment if you live in Cyprus, France, Gibraltar, Greece, Malta, Portugal or Spain.

This is because the average winter temperature is higher than the warmest region of the UK.

You will also not qualify if you:

• are in hospital getting free treatment for more than a year
• need permission to enter the UK and your granted leave states that you can not claim public funds
• were in prison for the whole “qualifying week”
• lived in a care home for the whole time between 26 June to 24 September 2023, and got Pension Credit, Income Support, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance or income-related Employment and Support Allowance

Payments are usually made between November and December, with some made up until the end of January the following year.

Do you have a money problem that needs sorting? Get in touch by emailing money-sm@news.co.uk.

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The European Central Bank has cut interest rates by a quarter-point to 3.25 per cent, amid signs that growth and inflation in the Eurozone are weakening.

Thursday’s move took Eurozone rates to their lowest point since May 2023 and followed a cut of the same size at the ECB’s meeting last month

While the cut was widely anticipated, the ECB said it was based on an “updated assessment of the inflation outlook”.

That suggested price pressures could now be weaker than the central bank forecast last month, when it predicted inflation would rise towards the end of the year but dip back under its 2 per cent target in 2025.

The euro was slightly weaker in early trading after the announcement, at $1.084.

Cutting rates just five weeks after the previous move and with little additional economic data indicated that “the ECB must have become much more concerned about the Eurozone’s growth outlook and the risk of inflation undershooting the target”, Carsten Brzeski, global head of macro at ING, wrote in a note to clients.

Eurozone inflation fell to 1.7 per cent in the year to September, sinking below 2 per cent for the first time in more than three years.

“The incoming information on inflation shows that the disinflationary process is well on track,” the ECB said. “The inflation outlook is also affected by recent downside surprises in indicators of economic activity.”

German officials have warned Europe’s biggest economy is set to shrink for the second consecutive year.

Traders in swaps markets price in another four or five quarter-point rate cuts by the middle of next year, including the near-certainty of a reduction in December. The euro has fallen by more than 2 per cent against the dollar over the past month as expectations grew of faster rate cuts.

The ECB itself gave little guidance over the future path of its monetary policy on Thursday. It reiterated it was taking “a data-dependent and meeting-by-meeting approach” and was “not pre-committing to a particular rate path”.

Deutsche Bank’s chief European economist Mark Wall said Thursday’s decision could represent a “pivot” towards a faster return to lower rates.

The US Federal Reserve reduced its benchmark interest rate in September for the first time in more than four years, lowering borrowing costs by a half-point and signalling more reductions on the way.

The Bank of England is also expected to lower rates again in November, after cuts earlier this year.

The ECB started to cut rates in June and has now lowered borrowing costs three times. Thursday’s decision was made in Ljubljana, at the Slovenian central bank.

SAINSBURY’S has provoked customer backlash after making a major change at one of its stores.

One of the UK’s biggest retailers has added more self-service checkouts at its branch in Chippenham, Wiltshire.

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A spokesperson for the supermarket chain said it had made the change to meet “customer demand”.

But some customers on Facebook have been left fuming, saying the move has made the manned tills backlogged.

Some have gone as far to say they won’t shop at the branch again.

One said: “It’s awful. I went there the other day for a big shop, the queues were down the aisles for the manned tills so we were forced to use the new trolley self scanner.”

Another added: “I went yesterday there is no room at the self scanners especially if everyone has trolleys, think they will lose a lot of customers.”

A third chimed in: “I get why they’re doing it – I was told people walked out with £4K of shopping a few weeks ago but it’s now a very annoying and poor experience going there

“I will not use the self-checkouts – I prefer dealing with people not machines.”

Meanwhile, a fourth commented: “I won’t use the self checkout, I expect human service when (I am) spending my hard earned money in their stores and if they won’t serve me I am happy to leave my trolley and go somewhere else.”

A Sainsbury’s spokesperson said: “We regularly review the services available in our stores to make sure we offer the most convenient experience for our customers.  

“We have slightly increased the number of self-service checkouts at our Chippenham store so that we can meet customer demand for this service.

“Our colleagues are on hand to help anyone who may need support using them and we continue to offer serviced checkouts for our customers who wish to use them.”

Sainsbury’s is not the first supermarket to have made a change to self-checkout rules in recent months to customer frustration.

Asda introduced “self-checkout only hours” at one of its branches earlier this year, restricting customers to automated tills only at certain times of the day.

Signs in the Bournemouth store showed customers that from 7am to 8am Monday to Saturday, customers can use just self-scan checkouts.

From 8pm to 11pm on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday and from 7pm to 11pm on Wednesday, all manned tills are closed.

Asda told The Sun the move was a “temporary decision” made during quieter shopping hours and not a company-wide policy.

However, the supermarket chain, also said earlier this year that it will put more staff on tills in a bid to get more shoppers back in stores.

Over the past decade, supermarket bosses have invested in self-scanning tills, convinced customers prefer the speedier style of shopping.

But the move to automated tills has seen some shoppers left feeling left behind and dissatisfied.

Some supermarkets, like Asda, have rowed back on plans to increase the number of self-scan checkouts in stores though.

In August, Rami Baitiéh, the chief executive of Morrisons, announced the supermarket would scale back the number of self-checkouts in stores.

In an interview with The Telegraph, Baitiéh said the company was “reviewing the balance between self-checkouts and manned tills”.

High-end supermarket chain Booths, based in the North of England, abandoned the technology after discovering customers had a more enjoyable experience when interacting with a cashier.

This move aligns with data previously published by The Grocer which reveals service satisfaction has declined by as much as 8% due to the use of self-checkout machines.

If you want to avoid self-checkouts in your local supermarket or retailer branch, you could try scan-as-you-go tech.

They let you scan as you browse, either using their smartphone or a handheld device then checkout in a different area from other shoppers.

You often can bag your groceries as you wander around too, saving even more time.