Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to provide facilities for those in receipt of (1) the Winter Fuel Allowance, and (2) the Christmas bonus, to convert such payments into charitable donations to NHS hospital charities.

Recipients of Winter Fuel Payments and Christmas Bonuses are free to decide how to spend them. I am aware that a number of charities ask for customers to donate their payments to assist others and if a customer wishes to make such a donation they are free to do so.

In most cases the Christmas Bonus and Winter Fuel Payment are paid automatically with whichever qualifying benefit an individual receives, which ensures administration costs are kept to a minimum. Introducing a process that would allow customers to convert either the Winter Fuel Payment or Christmas bonus into a charitable donation would introduce complexity and cost into the system.