£100 pensioner fuel support payments to begin

THE £100 fuel support payment for pensioner households across the North will start arriving from next week, it has been announced.

The one-off payment, which will be made to those who previously received the Winter Fuel Payment but are now no longer eligible, will start arriving with individuals from Friday, March 21.

It has been made possible through £17 million of Executive funding secured by Communities Minister Gordon Lyons after changes by the Labour Government to Winter Fuel Payment eligibility.

The payment will be paid automatically into individual’s accounts from March 21 with no need for application. Mr Lyons said, “Following the unexpected and unwelcome news last July that 180,000 pensioner households in Northern Ireland would no longer be eligible for the Winter Fuel Payment, I moved to secure Executive funding to mitigate the impact of the decision.

“Having tasked my officials to prepare the legislative and operational groundwork to enable this payment to be made as quickly as possible, I can announce that the money will be in people’s accounts ahead of the expected end-of-March date and will begin arriving from Friday, March 21.

“Whilst I realise the payment will not fully cover the impact of changes to the Winter Fuel Payment, I hope it will go some way to supporting those affected.”

An estimated 250,000 pensioners, in approximately 180,000 households, who were set to lose out after the UK government’s decision to means-test the Winter Fuel Payment, will receive the automatic payment. Eligibility criteria and payment channels will be those previously used for WFPs.

Two qualifying individuals in the same pensioner household will each receive £50.

Pensioners must have been born before September 23, 1958 in the qualifying week (Monday, September 16 to Sunday, September 22, 2024) to be eligible for the one-off £100 payment.

If there are more than two eligible claimants in the same household, they will each receive a £50 payment.