Money Saving Expert founder Martin Lewis has issued an update on the Winter Fuel Payment changes affecting millions of state pensioners this year. In 2024, the government axed the universal Winter Fuel Payment, which paid £200 to pensioners to help them meet the cost of their energy bills, or £300 to pensioners over 80.

Instead, the government introduced a means testing element so that only pensioners who claim Pension Credit, a low-income top up benefit, would be able to receive the money. Lewis, who has previously pushed back against the way the changes have been implemented, has given an update on the Winter Fuel Payment after rumours began to circulate that the government was considering making tweaks and walking back on some of the hugely unpopular changes to the benefit.

According to the rumours, one way this may be done is by raising the eligibility threshold higher, meaning more pensioners on low incomes would be eligible to receive the payment.

Lewis tweeted: “Reports government may partially U-turn on the Winter Fuel Payment cut by raising the effective eligibility threshold from £11,500.

“That’d be welcome but still doesn’t fix the worst underlying problem… the means testing mechanism (i.e. to get it you must claim Pension Credit) is flawed.

“Around 700,000 of the most vulnerable pensioners, already earning under £11,500, don’t get Winter Fuel Payments because they don’t go through the overly arduous process of claiming Pension Credit. Thus they miss out on both the important support that brings and on Winter Fuel Payments. That needs to change.

“None of this is new. Many of us have been shouting it until we’re blue in the face. If a fix is to come, let it be a proper one, not just an electoral sticking plaster.”

Lewis then followed up his tweet after an update from Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer which confirmed that such speculated changes won’t be coming after all.

Lewis called the current system ‘broken’ as he warned that 700,000 pensioners who need the money will still miss out on the payment.

He added: “So Keir Starmer now saying they won’t be changing Winter Fuel Payment at all. So that means:

“Threshold will remain too low at £11,500.

“Means test mechanism will remain broken, with government accepting 700,000 pensioners (its own data) on under £11,500 income won’t get WFP.”

Lewis has, since the change came in, pushed hard for more people to claim Pension Credit.

The problem, as he outlined last year, is that hundreds of thousands of people who should be claiming Pension Credit still aren’t doing so, for various reasons – maybe they aren’t able to fill out the forms, or they don’t realise they are eligible for the money. As a result, as many as 700,000 people who are on a low enough income to get a Winter Fuel Payment will still not get one.

Speaking in September 2024 on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Lewis said: “Most people who are going to claim it are claiming it. What you have left are the low hanging fruit. You have some people who are scared of filling in the forms and find it too difficult, some people who are too proud to take it, and many people who are elderly and have issues like onset dementia which means they will never claim this payment.”

He added: “For those 700,000 or 800,000 pensioners who don’t get pension credit, it means by definition they have less than £11,400 a year income. Less than that. These are the poorest pensioners. It means that the government thinks that they should get Winter Fuel Payment and they’re in such a dire state that they should get Winter Fuel Payment, but they still won’t get it.”