THE DWP IS WORKING THROUGH A BACKLOG FOLLOWING A RUSH TO CLAIM PENSION CREDIT 12:26, 10 Feb 2025Updated 12:33, 10 Feb 2025 Thousands of state pensioners may not receive their Winter Fuel

Payment until April, it's believed. The allowance is now restricted to people on Pension Credit and some other means-tested benefits. Around 150,000 people applied for Pension Credit in

the 16 weeks after Rachel Reeves announced the cutbacks in July 2024. In mid-January, more than 74,000 people were still waiting for their Pension Credit claims to be processed. Pensions

Minister Torsten Bell said in a written parliamentary answer: "Outstanding Pension Credit claims totalled 92,400 at the end of week commencing December 23, 2024. This includes 8,500

to clear the backlog. As the DWP reduced the outstanding cases by 18,400 in the three weeks from December 23 to January 13 - around 6,000 a week on average - then it would take just over 12

weeks to deal with the remaining 74,000. From January 13 that takes us up to the week of April 7. On this basis, it's believed the backlog will almost certainly have been completely

cleared by the end of April. Former pensions minister Steve Bell estimates that the majority of those waiting for a decision should have been notified by the end of March. "At this

rate, there will still be thousands of pensioners who applied before the deadline waiting for their Winter Fuel Payment in the spring," said Deven Ghelani, director of analytics firm

Policy in Practice. The average waiting time to process a Pension Credit claim is now just under 50 working days - or 10 weeks. Around 500 extra staff have been deployed to handle

applications, and more recent claims have been decided within a few weeks. In addition, some people who were already receiving a qualifying benefit such as Pension Credit may have been

mistakenly omitted from the initial rollout and will get their fuel payment this month after reporting that it hasn't arrived. Most people receive the Winter Fuel Payment in November

and December. Anyone who was already eligible but hadn't received the allowance or a letter confirming their eligibility must have raised the issue by January 29. Those who have

reported a missing payment by the end-of-January deadline could potentially receive their Winter Fuel Payment sometime in February if the DWP confirms they had been overlooked. The amount

paid is £200 if you were born between September 23, 1944, and September 22, 1958, and £300 if born before September 23, 1944. Eligibility for the payment was narrowed down to pensioners on

Pension Credit or who live in mixed-age households receiving other means-tested benefits. These are Universal Credit, Income Support, income-based Jobseeker's Allowance, income-related

Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credit. A DWP spokesman said: "All eligible claims for Pension Credit can still be backdated by up to three

months and it is worth on average £4,200, so we continue to urge everyone eligible to apply. We have deployed around 500 additional staff to support processing applications and we have seen

a 51 per cent increase in the number of cleared claims since the Chancellor's announcement." Article continues below Get breaking news on BirminghamLive WhatsApp. Join our

dedicated community for the latest updates. You can find out more in our Money Saving Newsletter, which is sent out daily with all the updates you need to know on pensions, PIP, Universal

Credit, benefits, finances, bills, and shopping discounts.