Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of passporting pensioners in receipt of Housing Benefit onto the Winter Fuel Payment for this year, ahead of planned alignment changes.

We will shortly be directly contacting approximately 120,000 pensioners who are in receipt of Housing Benefit and who may be eligible for, but not currently claiming, Pension Credit. We will be inviting these pensioners to claim Pension Credit ahead of 21st December so that they may also be entitled to this year’s Winter Fuel Payment.

In the longer term, the Government will bring together the administration of Pension Credit and Housing Benefit, so that pensioner households receiving Housing Benefit also receive any Pension Credit that they are entitled to, which was pushed back by the previous government.