Winter Fuel Payment Dates for Winter 2026-27: Payments, Claims and Deadlines

By Kimi · November 7, 2026 · 13 min read

Key takeaways

DWP has not published a single payment date. Its easy-read guide says payments will be made from mid-November 2026 onwards, and GOV.UK says most people will be paid in November or December 2026.
If no letter or payment has arrived by 27 January 2027, contact the Winter Fuel Payment Centre on 0800 731 0160 (Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm).
You qualify if you were born on or before 27 June 1960 and usually live in England, Wales or Northern Ireland; the qualifying week was 21 to 27 September 2026. Amounts run from £100 to £300.
Most people are paid automatically. Those who must claim have until 31 March 2027, by post or by phone.
⚠️ The opt-out for 2026-27 has closed. If your own total income is over £35,000, HMRC takes the payment back, usually through your tax code. To opt back in, contact DWP before 31 March 2027; the 2027-28 opt-out opens on 21 December 2026.
⚠️ Scotland has no Winter Fuel Payment. Social Security Scotland pays the Pension Age Winter Heating Payment instead, £105.55 to £316.70, from November 2026 through the winter.

DWP has not published a single payment date for the 2026-27 Winter Fuel Payment: its easy-read guide says payments will be made “from mid-November 2026 onwards”, GOV.UK says most people will be paid in November or December, and if nothing has arrived by 27 January 2027 you should contact the Winter Fuel Payment Centre. Anyone who has to claim has until 31 March 2027. This is the position as checked on GOV.UK at about 13:05 GMT on Saturday 7 November 2026; the main guide was last edited on 30 October 2026.

When will the Winter Fuel Payment be paid in winter 2026-27?

Payments start from mid-November 2026, and most people will be paid in November or December 2026. That is as precise as DWP has been. Some news reports have named a specific start day or promised an “exact date”; no DWP or GOV.UK page does.

What DWP has said:

Letters first. If you are eligible, you should get a letter in October or November saying how much you will get and which account it will be paid into. In Northern Ireland, nidirect says the letter also gives an estimated payment date.
Then the money. The DWP easy-read guide says payments will be made “from mid-November 2026 onwards”. The GOV.UK guide says most payments are made automatically in November or December.
Which account. Usually the same account your State Pension or other benefits go into.
Chase date. If you have had no letter, or the money has not reached your account by 27 January 2027, contact the Winter Fuel Payment Centre.

Because payments go out over several weeks, a neighbour or relative being paid before you is not, on its own, a sign that something has gone wrong. The 27 January 2027 date is the point at which DWP asks you to get in touch.

How will the payment show on my bank statement?

DWP has not published a fixed bank reference code for England, Wales or Northern Ireland. The only official wording is on the 2026 to 2027 claim form, which says statements covering November and December “may show your National Insurance number” next to any payment DWP has made. If you think a payment is wrong, the form points you to the Winter Fuel Payment Centre on 0800 731 0160.

Treat any article that gives a guaranteed code for England, Wales or Northern Ireland with caution: GOV.UK does not list one. Scotland is different (see below).

What are the key dates for 2026-27?

The dates that matter now are mid-November (payments start), 27 January 2027 (chase a missing payment) and 31 March 2027 (claim deadline; to opt back in, contact the Payment Centre before that date). In the table below, “Date” is the date or window, “Event” is what happens, and “Applies to” says whether it is the Winter Fuel Payment (England, Wales and Northern Ireland, shortened to E, W, NI) or Scotland’s Pension Age Winter Heating Payment. Note that GOV.UK asks for opt-in requests to reach the Payment Centre before 31 March 2027, so do not leave it until the last day.

Date	Event	Applies to
18–20 Sep 2026	2026-27 opt-out closed	E, W, NI
21–27 Sep 2026	Qualifying week	All
21 Sep 2026	Postal claims opened	E, W, NI
19 Oct 2026	Phone claims opened	E, W, NI
19 Oct 2026 (noon)	Opt-out closed	Scotland
Oct–Nov 2026	Letters sent	E, W, NI
From mid-Nov 2026	Payments begin	E, W, NI
From Nov 2026	Letters, then payments	Scotland
21 Dec 2026	2027-28 opt-out opens	E, W, NI
27 Jan 2027	Chase if unpaid	E, W, NI
Start of Mar 2027	Chase if unpaid	Scotland
Before 31 Mar 2027	Opt back in	E, W, NI
31 Mar 2027	Claim deadline	E, W, NI
31 Mar 2027	Opt-in deadline	Scotland

The first row covers two opt-out deadlines: by phone at 6pm on Friday 18 September and online at 11:59pm on Sunday 20 September, as GOV.UK showed them before they passed.

Who gets it, and how much?

You can get the Winter Fuel Payment if you were born on or before 27 June 1960 and usually live in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, and the amount is between £100 and £300. What you get depends on your age and your circumstances in the qualifying week, 21 to 27 September 2026. It does not affect your other benefits.

In brief, from the GOV.UK guide:

Living alone, or no one you live with is eligible: £200 if you were born between 28 September 1946 and 27 June 1960, or £300 if you were born before 28 September 1946.
Living with another eligible person, and neither of you gets Pension Credit, Universal Credit or income-related ESA: £100 each if you are both in the younger group; £100 for the younger person and £200 for the older one if your ages are mixed; £150 each if you were both born before 28 September 1946.
Living with another eligible person, and you get one of those benefits on your own (not as a joint claim): £200, or £300 if you were born before 28 September 1946.
Joint claim for one of those benefits: one payment of £200, or £300 if either of you was born before 28 September 1946, paid to one of the couple.
Care home: £100, or £150 if you were born before 28 September 1946.

You will not be eligible if, for example, you were only visiting during the qualifying week, were in hospital getting free treatment for the whole of that week and the year before it, were in prison for the whole week, or have leave that says you cannot claim public funds. If you live in a care home, you are excluded only if you get Universal Credit, Pension Credit or income-related ESA and had lived in the care home for the whole time from 29 June 2026 or earlier.

We covered Pension Credit and how it changes the amount in our Pension Credit and Winter Fuel Payment guide .

Do I need to claim, and how?

Most people are paid automatically and do not need to claim; if you do need to, the deadline for winter 2026-27 is 31 March 2027. You do not need to claim if you get any of these:

State Pension or Pension Credit
Universal Credit or income-related ESA
Attendance Allowance, PIP, DLA or Carer’s Allowance
War Pensions Scheme awards, Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit, Incapacity Benefit or Industrial Death Benefit

If you get none of them, you need to claim if you have never had a Winter Fuel Payment before, or if you have deferred your State Pension since your last one.

How to claim:

By post (open since 21 September 2026): fill in the Winter Fuel Payment claim form and send it to Winter Fuel Payment Centre, Mail Handling Site A, Wolverhampton WV98 1LR.
By phone (open since 19 October 2026): call the Winter Fuel Payment Centre on 0800 731 0160. Textphone users can contact Relay UK on 18001 then 0800 731 0160, and there is a British Sign Language video relay service. Lines are open Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.

What you need before you call:

your National Insurance number
the date you married or entered a civil partnership, if that applies
your bank or building society details

You will also be asked whether, during the qualifying week, you were in hospital getting free in-patient treatment, in a residential care home or Ilford Park Resettlement Home, or in prison. Payments cannot go into a National Savings and Investments (NS&I) account unless you already get other benefits paid into it. If you disagree with a decision, you can ask for a mandatory reconsideration.

What happens if my income is over £35,000?

If your own total income is over £35,000, HMRC takes the Winter Fuel Payment back; your partner’s income does not count. You still receive the payment first. GOV.UK has an online checker for whether your income is over the threshold.

How HMRC recovers it, as GOV.UK describes:

Tax code. Usually HMRC changes your tax code, so more tax is taken from your wages or pension. It contacts you by email or post when it does.
Self Assessment. If you file a return, you pay it through your tax bill. Online returns usually include it automatically as the “Winter Fuel Payment charge”. If you use Making Tax Digital software, you cannot pay it back when you submit; HMRC writes to you afterwards.
Two payments at once. GOV.UK’s own example: if HMRC is already collecting your 2025 payment, your tax code changes in January 2027 to start collecting the 2026 one, which means about £30 to £33 more tax a month if both payments are £200. Unless you opt out, it changes again in April 2027 to collect the 2027 payment in advance.

nidirect adds that if your income is over £35,000 and you did not opt out, you cannot return the payment yourself; HMRC takes it back.

Can I still opt out or opt back in?

No, the opt-out for winter 2026-27 has closed, but the opt-out for 2027-28 opens on 21 December 2026. GOV.UK and nidirect both say you can no longer opt out for this winter. If you opted out earlier and want the payment again, contact the Winter Fuel Payment Centre before 31 March 2027 to be paid for winter 2026-27. You will need your name, address, date of birth and National Insurance number.

Is it different in Northern Ireland?

No, nidirect says the eligibility rules in Northern Ireland are the same as in England and Wales, and payment is automatic. The differences are small:

Your letter, sent in October or November, should give an estimated date for your payment as well as the amount.
nidirect says the payment is tax free and does not affect your other benefits or income.
nidirect lists no separate Northern Ireland helpline for this payment: it points to the same Winter Fuel Payment Centre, and you should report changes such as a move, a new bank account or someone in your home going into care.
The opt-out dates are the same: closed for 2026-27, open for 2027-28 from 21 December 2026, opt back in before 31 March 2027.

What do pensioners in Scotland get instead?

Scotland has no Winter Fuel Payment: Social Security Scotland pays the Pension Age Winter Heating Payment (PAWHP), worth between £105.55 and £316.70, from November 2026 and through the winter. The age rule and qualifying week are the same as elsewhere: born on or before 27 June 1960, with the qualifying week Monday 21 to Sunday 27 September 2026. You must have lived in Scotland on at least the last day of that week.

Amounts, from mygov.scot:

Living alone or with no one else eligible: £211.15 if you were born between 28 September 1946 and 27 June 1960, or £316.70 if you were born before 28 September 1946.
Living with another eligible person when neither of you gets the qualifying benefits: £105.55, £158.35 or £211.15, depending on your ages.
Residential care, having gone in before 29 June 2026: £105.55, or £158.35 if you were born before 28 September 1946.

Timing and what to look for:

Letters are being sent from November 2026, and you get a letter before you are paid.
Payments start from November 2026 and continue throughout the winter.
The money goes to the same account as your State Pension or any Social Security Scotland benefit, and the bank reference includes “PAWHP”.
If you have not been paid by the start of March 2027, contact Social Security Scotland on 0800 182 2222.

Applying, opting out and tax:

Most people are paid automatically. You may need to apply if you have deferred your State Pension since your last PAWHP or Winter Fuel Payment, or if you are in a couple with a joint benefit award and the main claimant is under State Pension age. As of 7 November 2026, mygov.scot had not yet published the 2026-27 application window or a deadline; it says it will update the page when applications open.
The PAWHP opt-out for this winter closed at midday on 19 October 2026. mygov.scot says you can opt in for the current winter until 31 March, by phoning Social Security Scotland, even if you originally opted out through DWP.
If your individual income is over £35,000, HMRC recovers the payment through your 2027 to 2028 tax code or your 2026 to 2027 Self Assessment return.

Social Security Scotland expects around 879,000 pensioners to receive the payment this winter.

Is the £100 Household Energy Payment the same thing?

No, the £100 Household Energy Payment set out in the 28 October 2026 Autumn Budget is a separate scheme run by councils in England, not the Winter Fuel Payment. GOV.UK says it is for households in council tax bands A to D in England, with payments made from January 2027, and that nobody other than your council should contact you asking you to claim it. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are getting extra funding instead, and their governments will decide how to provide similar support.

How do I spot and report a Winter Fuel Payment scam?

HMRC says it will never contact people by text or email to ask them to repay their Winter Fuel Payment or to ask for bank details, and nidirect says you will not be sent a text or email asking for your bank details. GOV.UK warns that calls, emails and messages may pretend to come from a government service. HMRC said in April 2026 that it had seen more than 25,000 Winter Fuel Payment scam referrals in the previous 12 months.

How to report, from HMRC’s 14 April 2026 release:

Suspicious text claiming to be from HMRC: forward it to 60599.
Suspicious email: forward it to phishing@hmrc.gov.uk.
Scam phone call: report it through GOV.UK.
Money taken: contact your bank immediately and notify Report Fraud. In Scotland, contact the police on 101.

nidirect says that if you are paid automatically, you do not need to do anything to get the payment. A genuine claim is one you start yourself, on the GOV.UK claim form or by calling 0800 731 0160, so treat an unexpected text or email asking you to claim, confirm or give bank details as a scam.

Where can I get help?

For anything about your own payment, use the official contacts: the Winter Fuel Payment Centre for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and Social Security Scotland for PAWHP. Citizens Advice can also help you work through what you are entitled to.

Winter Fuel Payment Centre: 0800 731 0160 (Relay UK: 18001 then 0800 731 0160), Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm, or by post to Mail Handling Site A, Wolverhampton WV98 1LR. GOV.UK also has an email enquiry form.
Social Security Scotland: 0800 182 2222.
Other heating help listed on GOV.UK: Cold Weather Payments for people on certain benefits when it is zero degrees or below for 7 days in a row, the £150 Warm Home Discount, and cost-of-living help from your local council.

Sources

How we verified this

Payment timing rests on two DWP sources read on 7 November 2026. The GOV.UK Winter Fuel Payment guide (all parts, last edited 30 October 2026 at 12:18 UTC according to the GOV.UK content API, re-checked at 13:05 GMT) says most payments are made automatically in November or December and gives 27 January 2027 as the date to contact the Winter Fuel Payment Centre. The DWP easy-read guide (reference WFP1ER 10/26, publication page updated 2 November 2026) says payments will be made from mid-November 2026 onwards. Neither gives a single start date. Specific start days and bank “codes” quoted in some news reports are not in any DWP source and are not repeated here.

Bank statements in England, Wales and Northern Ireland: the only DWP wording found is on the 2026 to 2027 claim form WFP1 (07/26, Version 12), which says statements covering November and December “may show your National Insurance number” next to the payment. GOV.UK publishes no fixed reference code. The “PAWHP” reference applies to Scotland only and comes from mygov.scot.

Amounts, eligibility, claims, the £35,000 threshold and the opt-out were read on the same GOV.UK guide. The live opt-out page says you can no longer opt out for 2026-27, that the 2027-28 opt-out opens on 21 December 2026, and that to be paid for 2026-27 after opting out you must contact the Payment Centre before 31 March 2027. The closed 2026-27 opt-out deadlines (11:59pm on 20 September 2026 online, 6pm on 18 September 2026 by phone) come from a Wayback Machine copy of the GOV.UK opt-out page dated 6 September 2026, because the live page no longer lists them. Northern Ireland rests on the nidirect Winter Fuel Payment page. Scotland rests on mygov.scot (overview, eligibility, amounts, when you’ll be paid, need to apply, opt out) and Social Security Scotland news releases of 31 July and 30 September 2026. The mygov.scot “check if you need to apply” page still says it will be updated when 2026-27 applications open, so no Scottish application deadline is given here.

Scam guidance comes from the HMRC release on GOV.UK of 14 April 2026 and from nidirect. The Household Energy Payment section rests on the GOV.UK news page “What the Autumn Budget 2026 means for your energy bills” (28 October 2026), which gives the £100 amount, England-only scope, bands A to D, funding for the devolved governments and payments from January 2027, and on Council Tax Information Letter 6/2026 to councils. Everything was checked between 12:35 and 13:05 GMT on Saturday 7 November 2026. This page sets out published rules; it is not advice and cannot confirm whether you personally qualify.