warning about winter fuel payments database

I was also 60 in November last year and was spun the same yarn about there having to be a cutoff date to make sure that payments were received before Christmas. This is obviously nonsense as they could pay everybody who was going to be 60 in the year. I was told when I complained that Parliament had decided on this cutoff date, so your MP should be asked to justify it.

An even more serious problem is that the Winter Fuel Payments office are carrying out the work of arranging winter fuel paments for the Department for Work & Pensions and use what is known to be an incomplete contact information database from the DWP.

I was surprised not to have received any communication from them before I was 60 so I downloaded the winter fuel claim form from the website and sent it together with my birth certificate to the Winter Fuel Payments office. After four phone calls over the next 6 weeks trying to find out where my birth certificate was, I discovered that they had returned my birth certificate to my previous address which I had left 6 years before. Despite them asking me to verify my address each time I phoned as part of the security check, they had posted it to my previous address held on the DWP database.

Do not send anything to the Winter Fuel Payments office without telephoning to check which address they have for you.

Regrettably you are not alone here and I have raised this up with our useless political representative who also dodged the question.

It seems that if you ask a straight forward question you will be fobbed off by all politicians regardless of allegiance as they simply haven't the first clue about anything. From the Home Office to Social Services, there is complete lack of professionalism, ethics and morals - look at the crooks in Westminster paying their families out of our pockets without any need for declarations or reporting.

Britain is no longer GREAT - Bliar sorted that out, and the only thing I associate with BROWN is that which emerges from an animal's backside in large steaming lumps. Scotland gets everything for free - we pay through the nose ...

How much longer?

SHARK!

Having turned 60 this year and recently made redundant, I thought I would be entitled to he £200 Winter Fuel Payment so if forced to stay at home I would at least be able to keep warm without the additional worry of fuel bills.

Being in receipt of Pension Credit Benefit I assumed that the payment would be available to me however I discovered that the payment is allowed only if you reach 60 on or before mid-September. As I was 60 in November I do not qualify for the benefit so I will be 61 before I actually receive a payment.

When I queried this expemtion I was told that the Department of Works & Pensions need 3 months to process payments and likes to get payments out before Christmas. I wrote to my local MP with these questions.

If the DW&P needs 3 moths to process claims how come I did get a £10 Christmas Bonus in within 4 weeks
I was already in receipt of benefits so my details were already on file.
Why give the money in December when the winter fuel bils are not received until end-January/February.
Why not make 1st January the qualifying date
Why can't the payment be back dates
Why sould 25% of the population lose out this way

His reply? The DW&P have a September cut-off to ensure payments reach claimants before the cold weather. Not a single one of the points raised was answered.