Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of offering people eligible for winter fuel payments the option of donating the sum they would receive to charity instead.
Winter fuel payments give reassurance, particularly to poorer pensioners, that they can keep warm during the colder months. The department currently issues over 11 million winter fuel payments within a small delivery window. Introducing an option on the notification for customers to donate their winter fuel payment would introduce complexity to the process. Recipients are of course free to donate the payment to a charity of their choice.