Winter Fuel Payment opt-out deadline passed: Your next steps

All pensioners will receive the Winter Fuel Payment this year unless they opted out by midnight on Monday, 15 September. But the automatic payments worth up to £300 will be clawed back if your taxable income is £35,000 or more a year, following a Government policy change earlier this year.

An outcry forced a reversal of its unpopular move to axe the benefit for most older people last winter, unless they qualified for the means-tested Pensions Credit benefit. Some 9million pensioners – more than three quarters of those living in England and Wales – are expected to get the payment this year.

But an estimated 2million individuals in England and Wales, who are over state pension age and have a taxable income above £35,000, will not be allowed to keep it if they didn’t already opt out. You should ignore any bogus text messages, purporting to be from the Department for Work and Pensions, about making a WFP claim – there are widespread scams trying to get people to hand over personal information. The WFP for 2025/26 will be made automatically to everyone, then be ‘recovered’ from any household that isn’t eligible.

Opting out for this winter is no longer possible, but you will be able to do so for 2026/27 starting next April. If you have opted out but then realise you shouldn’t have, you can opt in again if your circumstances have changed and still get this year’s payment. You will need to contact the Winter Fuel Payment Centre by 31 March 2026 at the latest. For everyone who missed this year’s opt-out deadline, This is Money’s tax expert Heather Rogers recently explained how HMRC will get payments back if your income is over £35,000.

‘It will either send a simple calculation and deduct it from your tax code, or if you don’t have any income subject to PAYE it will send a bill,’ she says. ‘If you fill in a self-assessment tax return then you can pay back the WFP with your tax.’ But Rogers, founder of Aston Accountancy, adds: ‘HMRC has said no-one will have to register for self-assessment if their WFP has to be clawed back.’

When it comes to what is taxable income, Rogers explains that this is calculated gross, before deducting any personal or tax-free allowances. Therefore when working out whether you are over £35,000 or not, you should add up your pensions and all other income on which tax is payable, but NOT then deduct your tax allowances.

This Is Money’s pensions columnist, Steve Webb, also notes: ‘The Government has been at pains to stress that pensioners who do not currently file a tax return will not have to start doing so.’

He goes on: ‘One issue that has concerned people is whether HMRC will be chasing the families of people who have died after receiving their WFP but before it can be clawed back. The Government has said that if this is the *only* outstanding item of tax due then they will not seek to collect it, but if the WFP is simply part of the total outstanding income tax due then it will be added in.’