Winter Fuel Payment

Alison Hume Excerpts

Monday 9th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Torsten Bell]

What Labour MPs want is a Labour Government who bring down child poverty, and that is what we will do. They want a Government who take responsible decisions, including difficult ones on tax and on means-testing the winter fuel payment, so that we can invest in public services and turn around the disgrace that there has been in Britain’s public realm for far too long.

[Alison Hume (Scarborough and Whitby) (Lab)]

I welcome this announcement, as will the 26,000 pensioners in my constituency, where we have particularly cold and harsh winters. Will the Minister reassure my constituents that automatic payments will be reinstated, and will there be any change to the date on which payments will be made?

[Torsten Bell]

I will not adjudicate on which Member has the coldest constituency in England, as my hon. Friend invites me to. She raises an important point that has not yet been made, so I should spell this out: we will bring forward the regulations on the payment of the winter fuel allowance over the summer, and they will set the qualifying week as that of 15 September, as it has been in past years. That means that payments will be made in November and December, as in past years.