New £4,300 payments for certain state pensioners with DWP paying out first in July

The current processing time from the Department for Work and Pensions is 50 days for Pension Credit – meaning pensioners who get an application in this week could be paid in July.

State pensioners on a lower-income could be handed the first in a series of £4,300 payments in July. The current processing time from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is 50 days for Pension Credit – meaning pensioners who get an application in this week could be paid in July.

77 per cent of all new claims for Pension Credit were processed – from initial application to award decision letter – within the target timeframe of 50 working days last year. Labour Party Chancellor Rachel Reeves has withdrawn Winter Fuel Payments from 10 million pensioners, to help cover what she called a £22bn black hole in the public finances.

The decision announced in July has led to 150,000 applications for pension credit being submitted since. The government’s own data suggests a 10-week typical wait between an application being submitted and a final decision.

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Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper said the figures were a “damning indictment of the government’s failure to protect pensioners this winter”. “Millions of vulnerable pensioners are still set to lose their winter fuel payment just as the cold weather bites,” she said.

Shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately said the “stark reality” was that hundreds of thousands of eligible pensioners would miss out. The average weekly amount of Pension Credit is around £75 – or more than £3,900 a year – according to government figures.

On top of that, Pension Credit gives you eligibility for the £300 Winter Fuel Allowance as well as a string of other benefits, including BBC TV Licences discount, Royal Mail redirection discounts, Council Tax discounts and plenty else besides.

Guarantee credit tops up your weekly income to a guaranteed minimum level. This amount changes each year depending on inflation. Your income’s worked out as what you get from work, pensions (including State Pension) and assumed income from savings.

Savings credit doesn’t just look at how much you have in savings. Rather it’s the income level you get from your savings, as well as additional pension pots, and any earnings from work or other sources.