Politicians turned their backs on ten million pensioners yesterday, leaving them with just one hope of holding on to winter fuel payments.
Sir Keir Starmer won a vote in the House of Commons to scrap winter fuel allowance worth up to £300 towards energy bills for anyone who does not receive pension credit.
But those who apply for the credit now could be left waiting until spring before they receive any money, with no help during winter.
Money Mail has found that some pensioners have been waiting up to eight months this year for these vital top-ups to the state pension.
Sir Keir Starmer and shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves during a walkabout in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk
Experts warn that delays could escalate, as tens of thousands have rushed to apply in record numbers in recent weeks.
More than 38,500 applications for pension credit have been made in the five weeks after the Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ proposal to axe the winter fuel payment on July 29. That is an extra 20,600 applications compared to the previous five weeks. Her timing could not be worse as energy bills are due to soar 10 pc next month leaving ten million pensioners without support.
Last week, Money Mail exposed how pensioners who want to keep their winter fuel allowance face a gruelling application process to the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) that involves answering hundreds of questions on baffling subjects, including if they want to claim pension credit for any children.
Dozens of readers have since written to us about their ongoing battles to receive the pension credit money they desperately need – and are entitled to after a lifetime of paying taxes.
They paint a picture reminiscent of other government departments in dissaray such as HMRC and many complain of long call wait times to get through to the DWP. In one case, a reader was told there were 200 people in a queue ahead of her to receive pension credit. They also say their letters have gone unanswered for months.
Others give a litany of complaints about DWP staff – that they give out incorrect information, are wrongly rejecting applicants, making poor excuses, are rude to callers and make false promises. In one case, a reader was told the delays ‘hadn’t been helped by the war in Ukraine’.
For years, pension credit has been one of the biggest untapped resources available to those who retire with little or no private savings. Yet an estimated 880,000 have failed to claim because they incorrectly believe they are not eligible, are unaware of it or feel too proud to accept government handouts.
You are eligible for pension credit if you (and a partner) have reached state pension age — currently 66 — and have a low income and little put away.
If you do qualify, pension credit tops up weekly income to a minimum of £218.15 for single people and £332.95 for couples.
Brenda Ronayne, 77, has never been in debt but fears she will soon be forced into the red and may even have to remortgage her home after she has been left waiting five months for her £400-a-month pension credit.
A proud business owner for the past 31 years, Brenda was heartbroken to shut up her sandwich shop Baguette Bar in Swindon, Wiltshire, in March after facing a number of struggles with the enterprise.
She needs pension credit to get by and filled in an application at the start of April.
Within weeks, the DWP confirmed she qualified but five months and numerous phone calls later, Brenda has yet to receive a penny.
She says: ‘In June I was told I would be paid within three to five days. That never happened and when I called in July, I was told there were 200 people in the queue ahead of me waiting for pension credit.’
She warned DWP staff of her fears she will have to remortgage her house if it is not paid soon, as she is burning through her savings.
When she called again just last week, Brenda was shocked to be told her application had not yet been processed.
She says: ‘It’s getting critical – I need the money to come through. I applied in good faith. When I asked about the queue and mentioned the 200 people ahead of me, the woman more or less said I was lying about that. She said, “no one would have given you this information”.’
Following Money Mail’s involvement, the DWP has confirmed it is reviewing Brenda’s case.
Derek Bridges, from Taunton in Somerset, was delighted in March when a call handler at the DWP told him he should be receiving pension credit.
At 71 and receiving £202.25 a week from the state pension, Derek met the age and income criteria.
Sir Steve Webb, a former pension minister and now partner at consultancy LCP
Any savings or investments above £10,000 will affect the amount of pension credit you receive. Every £500 over that sum is counted as £1-a-week income and used to work out what top-up you get, if any.
Those caring for a relative, as Derek is for his daughter Claire and his 92-year-old mother-in-law who is bedridden, can get an extra £38.85 a week, and disabled pensioners an additional £69.40.
Derek has severe arthritis and should qualify for the disability top-up.
He was advised by the DWP worker to apply and make a request for the payment to be backdated for the three previous months, which he promptly did.
But within a week he received a letter telling him that his pension credit claim was unsuccessful.
Derek is not alone. Over the past five years, the DWP has turned down a third of all applications, according to a Freedom of Information request by wealth manager Quilter.
Upon taking it to the local Citizen’s Advice Bureau, he was assured the DWP had made a mistake and he was entitled to the payment.
Derek requested a mandatory review but has not heard anything since.
He says: ‘They don’t seem to care – it’s like facing a brick wall. It shouldn’t be that I have to fight for it. At the beginning I was told there was a 13-week delay. If that is still the case, people will be waiting until mid-December for their applications to go through.’
Pension credit is a gateway to many benefits, worth a combined £3,900 on average, including free dental care, a free TV licence, council tax discounts and help with rent and mortgage costs.
Derek says: ‘Without the badge of pension credit, it curtails all the other payments too.
‘It’s not a fair process. The form is so hard to fill in in the first place – they word the questions in a way that makes it easy to trip up. We lowered the heating last year and will have to lower it even more this year.’
‘The payment means you can have the heating on for a little bit longer when it’s really cold.’
Julie Jones, from Derby, who has helped her 92-year-old mother Constance apply for a pension credit top-up, says they have been left waiting since January.
The great-grandmother-of-four received a letter from the DWP rejecting her application on the grounds she had too much in savings – £18,277 – which Julie says is incorrect.
Julie says: ‘We have no idea where this figure has come from – she only has one account and there was £9,500 in it when I applied. There’s even less now.’
Savings under £10,000 do not count towards your income in the calculation for pension credit so Julie has sent copies of bank statements to the DWP to prove her point.
Julie’s letters have gone unanswered yet each time she calls the DWP she is asked to write yet another letter.
She says: ‘What is the point of writing when the DWP just ignores them? I’m tired of its shocking misinformation, obstinacy, lack of care and understanding, and an attitude of ‘we’ll get to you when we get to you’. The DWP seems oblivious to the stress and upset its inaction causes.’
There are however, clever tricks to use when filling in a 243-question pension credit application to make sure the process runs as smoothly as possible.
Derek was advised by the Citizen’s Advice Bureau to complete the application over the phone and let DWP workers fill forms on your behalf.
He says: ‘The advice bureau said you are better off letting them fill it in for you. The way they word the question, it’s very easy to trip up when you are answering.’
Sir Steve Webb, a former pension minister and now partner at consultancy LCP, echoes this, recommending you call the pension credit helpline to apply rather than filling in a paper form. This is because call centre staff can skip dozens of questions where a section doesn’t apply to you. For example if you don’t have any child dependents or if you don’t claim any disability benefits.
j.beard@dailymail.co.uk lucy.evans@dailymail.co.uk
The one-woman warrior fighting ‘national scandal’
Theresa Fazzani helps struggling pensioners with their applications
Theresa Fazzani is a one-woman pension-credit warrior, helping struggling pensioners with their applications.
The 58-year-old has been through the entire application process for ten pensioners aged between 65 and 84 in the past year. And after spending more than 100 hours wrangling with the forms, she says the application process is a ‘national scandal’.
She first offered to help her neighbour June just over a year ago. When news of this spread in her community on the Isle of White, she assisted a further nine people.
In recent weeks, a further 31 pensioners who are concerned about losing out on winter fuel payments this year ask for her help.
‘The whole process must be simplified,’ she says. ‘The form doesn’t need to be 243 questions and 24 pages. Pensioners don’t understand what a lot of it means.
‘It just needs to ask for their weekly income, proof of that income, if they have any savings or investments, and leave a space on the back page for any other information.’
Theresa says people often have trouble filling out the form by hand and don’t have access to the internet. But the intrusive nature of the questions and a determination not to be a burden on the state is also a big deterrent.
‘The stigma makes them hesitant to do it in the first place.
‘I spend a lot of time convincing them they’re not doing anything wrong. It’s very sad. They’ve got a lot of pride and don’t think they should be asking for money.’
The first step in the process is to sit with the pensioners and gather all the information she needs before taking it away and filling out the form.
‘They say they have attempted it before and thrown it in the bin because they find the form too difficult to fill in or don’t understand it.
The mental health counsellor says one woman took five weeks trying to complete it all by herself.
In taking up the fight on behalf of local pensioners, Theresa has encountered shocking delays within the DWP.
The average pensioner waits for six months from the time they apply before their pension credit payments begin, she says, but the wait time can be anywhere from three to nine months.
One woman Theresa helped to apply in February – still hasn’t received a response and has been told she won’t hear an outcome until November.
In some cases, she has dealt with applications for attendance allowance first, which helps with extra costs for disabled pensioners who need someone to help look after them.
This is paid as an extra on top of the state pension.
Theresa helped one 77-year-old neighbour to apply for attendance allowance and successfully boosted her pension.
June Davies (who asked for her name to be changed) has been a neighbour of Theresa’s for about three years.
Theresa says: ‘I was happy to help because the year before we watched June shivering. We paid for extra gas for her at the time.’
June says: ‘Theresa’s marvellous. I don’t know where I’d be without her. She’s the best neighbour I’ve ever had.’
Since Theresa posted on social media last month about the complexity of the pension credit and attendance forms, she has been inundated with as many as 31 messages from pensioners asking if she could help with their applications.
While it’s a mammoth task for Theresa to complete on her own – with each application taking about 10 hours to complete – other Facebook users have offered to help and they are considering holding sessions in the local library.
She says: ‘As many as I can help I will.’
While help from charities is widely available, Theresa spoke to one lady earlier this year who couldn’t get through to charity Age UK with the pension credit form as they were ‘snowed under’ and would have to wait at least a year.
If you need to complete the form yourself, Theresa says to get all important documents and information together before you begin. Be aware you’ll also need information about your carer, such as their National Insurance number, if you have one.
She advises: ‘Try and do a bit of the form every day to lessen the stress. Don’t sit there and think “I have to do it all right now”.’
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