Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government, in notifying individuals that they may be eligible to Winter Fuel Payments, whether they took steps to ensure that letters were not sent to deceased people whose relatives had used the Tell Us Once service, and in how many instances they are aware of such letters being sent despite this.

The department each year routinely takes steps to ensure letters issued to those eligible to Winter Fuel payments are accurate based on their circumstances at the time of writing. Naturally, there is a short timeframe where in very rare occasions these circumstances may change whilst the letters are already in production or in the delivery network. We continually review our processes to ensure these instances are kept to an absolute minimum to avoid unnecessary impacts on our customers or their relatives.