Statement from the Salford City Mayor on recent developments from Government regarding winter fuel payments for this coming winter

The Government’s announcement that it will support pensioners' winter fuel payments this year is welcome news for pensioners in Salford. This is essential support that many older people in Salford rely on to be able to heat their homes over winter, ensuring that our older residents aren’t forced to choose between heating or eating or going without the basic essentials throughout the winter months.

We welcome the Government’s decision that £200 payments will be made per eligible pensionable household and £300 for each eligible pensionable household where there is someone aged over 80, with the Government operating a £35,000 household income threshold to determine eligibility for the winter fuel payments. This announcement aims to benefit around nine million pensioners and will cost around £1.25bn to implement in England and Wales.

It is also positive to note that the threshold for triggering an eligible winter fuel payment is above the national minimum wage and real living wage annual salary threshold of £23,809 and 24,570 respectively for someone working a 37.5 hour week.

The Government has also confirmed that winter fuel payments will automatically be paid, with payments only to be recovered from households with an annual income above £35,000. This announcement is also in addition to more than 12 million pensioners across the UK benefitting from the Government’s commitment to triple lock, with state pensions set to increase by up to £1,900 over this Parliament.

In Salford, we have called on the Government to ensure a fairer and more inclusive approach to support our older residents. The decision to make winter fuel payments automatic without linking them to a successful pension credit application is a welcome development in this regard. This also supports my previous calls to auto-enrol eligible pensioners onto pension credit to trigger much needed winter fuel payments last winter.

Anything the Government can do to simplify the social security system, reduce unnecessary bureaucracy and make it as easy as possible to put money into the pockets of our residents and low income households who need it the most, is to be welcomed.

This announcement must also sit alongside the need to reform pension credits as the current system is overly bureaucratic, at times disenfranchising for our elderly residents and therefore failing older people in our city who are suffering from years of austerity and cost-of-living pressures, especially given recent inflationary increases and the disproportionate impacts of inflation rises on poorer residents and low income households.

In Salford we invested £500,000 from the Government’s Household Support Fund to ensure our most vulnerable pensioners continued to receive much needed financial support over last winter, helping to ensure that they didn't have to go without or worry about how to make ends meet. The funding has supported 2,512 households with the cost of heating, helping them avoid needing to choose between the basic necessities of life. 

To support households across the city, we had already planned to roll-out the winter fuel payments again this coming winter and confirmed this at our recent Full Council meeting. We will revisit this in light of the latest positive announcement from the Government, which will result in significantly more eligible pensionable households across Salford receiving a winter fuel payment this coming winter.

We have also invested £406,000 over three years in a project to encourage Pensioner Benefit Take-Up – between 1 February 2024 and end of May 2025, the project has so far helped to secure £3.7 million in cash gains for Salford’s pensioners, helping 1,354 residents, including access to pension credit, attendance allowance, housing benefit and council tax reduction.

I will be writing to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Secretary of States for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to acknowledge these positive developments from the Government for our eligible pensioners in Salford and to share our own experiences and findings locally from Salford City Council’s winter fuel payment and benefit take-up initiatives. I will also set out how we believe Government can create a fairer and more inclusive approach to help ensure that pensioners are effectively supported to easily claim the much needed support that they’re rightfully entitled to, while also highlighting that we need to do more to ensure that essential welfare rights and debt advice services are statutorily recognised as critical services and properly funded within local government.

Finally, I’d also like to thank all our partners, city council officers, the community, voluntary, faith and social enterprise (VCFSE) sector, housing associations, councillors, volunteers and community activists who have got behind the city of Salford’s Emergency Cost of Living Summit for our older residents back at the start of October 2024, their help and support has been invaluable and the city council looks forward to continuing to develop this important work to deliver for our elderly residents across the city of Salford.

To note: It’s important to consider that poverty may be defined different ways, and while there is no single, universally accepted definition, there are a number of measures and the House of Commons Library sets these out: Poverty in the UK: statistics - House of Commons Library.