Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an estimate of the number and proportion of people previously in receipt of the winter fuel payment who will no longer be eligible to receive it in each (a) local authority and (b) constituency.

The number and proportion of people previously in receipt of the winter fuel payment, who will no longer be eligible to receive it in each local authority and constituency can be derived using the following published statistics: winter-fuel-payments-caseload-2022-to-2023.ods (live.com) and Stat-Xplore - Table View (dwp.gov.uk).

These are 22/23 Winter Fuel Payment statistics and Feb-24 Pension Credit statistics.

Estimation of those who will no longer be eligible to receive Winter Fuel Payment can be calculated by subtracting the number of Pension Credit recipients for each local authority and constituency from the number of Winter Fuel Payment recipients for each local authority and constituency.

Please note that the Pension Credit data that is used should be based on the 2010 Westminster Parliamentary constituencies, not 2024 in order to be comparable with the Winter Fuel Payments statistics.

In addition to that, the above figures do not take into account any potential increase in Pension Credit take-up. We do not have data on those additional Pension Credit claims by Parliamentary constituencies or local authorities.

Also, the published Pension Credit figures refer to households, so the number of individuals will be higher (i.e. taking account of households where it is a couple claiming Pension Credit).

Furthermore, Pension Credit claimants are the majority of those that will be eligible for Winter Fuel Payments, not all. There are other pensioners who are eligible for Winter Fuel Payments (as they claim other means tested benefits) but they are not considered in these figures as it is not possible to do so.