State pensioners have been urged to carry out an online check to see whether they qualify for additional Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) support, including the £150 Warm Home Discount. Many people on low incomes, both of working age and in retirement, miss out on extra help towards their bills, and with several Government schemes running through the colder months, now is a good time to review eligibility.
Warm Home Discount explained
Abigail Everett, from Policy in Practice, spoke to the BBC Money Box show about the support available. One scheme she highlighted was the Warm Home Discount, a one-off £150 discount applied to your electricity bill, or to your dual fuel energy bill if you have this arrangement.
Asked how the scheme works, she said: "It does require people to be claiming eligible means-tested benefits. We know that there are around 900,000 people who don't claim the Pension Credit that they're eligible for, and about 2.3 million people who don't claim Universal Credit that they're eligible for."
How Pension Credit works
Pension Credit is available to people of state pension age. The benefit tops up your income, and being a claimant also opens up access to other Government support, such as the Warm Home Discount. To find out if you are eligible, there are several benefit calculator tools you can use online, such as the one on the Turn2us website.
Pension Credit tops up your weekly income to £238 for single claimants and up to £363.25 if you have a partner. If your qualifying income is less than these amounts, you may qualify for the benefit and the extra support that comes with it. However, the income limit may be higher for you, as you can get extra amounts on top of the income top-up depending on your situation, such as if you care for another adult.
Extra help through Pension Credit
For couples, both partners must be of state pension age to qualify for Pension Credit. The average claim is worth more than £4,000 a year with all the support you can access as a claimant. As a Pension Credit claimant, you can also access Cold Weather Payments, which are £25 payments that go out in areas of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland when temperatures fall below zero across seven consecutive days. If you live in Scotland, you instead get a £62 payment regardless of the weather, with the Winter Heating Payment.
Additional support includes a free TV licence if you are aged 75 or over, saving you £180 a year, and help with NHS and other medical costs.
'Huge amount' unclaimed
Continuing her message on the BBC show, Ms Everett urged people to check if they are eligible for any extra help. She said: "There is a huge amount of support that is unclaimed. We know there's £24billion worth of support that goes unclaimed every year. We would really urge people to use a free benefits calculator to identify if they're claiming everything that they are eligible for. And don't assume that you're not eligible just because you're not claiming currently."
The full podcast is available on the BBC Sounds website.
