NAWRA has written to Secretary of State Liz Kendall to express its concerns that the government is planning to restrict eligibility for winter fuel payments (WFPs) to those in receipt of pension credit (or other specific means-tested benefits).
This is despite the fact that it acknowledges that up to an estimated 880,000 households who are eligible for pension credit are yet to claim and would therefore be ineligible for the WFP.
Accordingly, NAWRA has recommended in the strongest terms that –
- Sufficient staffing resources are put in a place as a matter of urgency both on the pension credit helpline and within the Pension Service’s processing centre – these should realistically reflect the estimated increase in claims;
- Care should be taken to ensure all new staff are properly trained so that prospective claimants are not given incorrect information or advice;
- Any claims taking longer than the target six weeks should be automatically escalated to a specialist team and prioritised; and
- There should be full transparency about the Department’s performance with regular (ideally monthly) updates in relation to –
- response times on the helpline and number of unanswered calls;
- the number of claims received; and
- processing times.
It also calls on the government to put on hold any proposed changes to the winter fuel payment eligibility criteria until firstly there has been an opportunity to consult on them and, secondly, that the take-up rate for pension credit is above 95%.
Read the letter to the Secretary of State