{"id":172251,"date":"2025-06-10T06:26:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-10T06:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/172251\/"},"modified":"2025-06-10T06:26:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-10T06:26:11","slug":"ni-pensioners-could-have-payments-restored","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/172251\/","title":{"rendered":"NI pensioners could have payments restored"},"content":{"rendered":"

Enda McClafferty<\/p>\n

BBC News NI political editor<\/p>\n

\"BBCBBC<\/p>\n

Margaret Galloway said a lot of pensioners were in real financial trouble <\/p>\n

Tens of thousands of pensioners in Northern Ireland could be in line to have their winter fuel payments restored after a government U-turn.<\/a><\/p>\n

The payment to about 250,000 pensioners in Northern Ireland was cut last year in a cost-saving measure by the new Labour government.<\/p>\n

But the government has now set a new threshold for payments, as a result of which the majority of pensioners will get the payment of \u00a3200, for those under 80, and \u00a3300 for those over 80.<\/p>\n

One Newtownabbey pensioner told BBC News NI she could now feel more relaxed about putting the heat on if she needs to.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Lyons says “much more clarity is needed”<\/p>\n

The money will be paid for the incoming winter.<\/p>\n

But those pensioners earning more than \u00a335,000 will not qualify for the payment.<\/p>\n

Stormont Communities Minister Gordon Lyons said the U-turn was “good news”.<\/p>\n

Lyons added that it would ultimately be a decision for the Stormont Executive to reinstate the payments for those in Northern Ireland, but said he would be making that recommendation to other ministers.<\/p>\n

He said he had conversations with Finance Minister John O’Dowd and officials from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) on Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Pensioners ‘in real trouble’<\/p>\n

Northern Ireland’s Commissioner for Older People, Siobhan Casey, said she hoped there would be clarity for Northern Ireland pensioners on the payments.<\/p>\n

“It would have been preferable to make it a universal payment, but we understand that this is a move in the right direction,” she told BBC Radio Ulster’s Evening Extra.<\/p>\n

“I think this is a lesson for policy-makers that support for older people must be planned, protected and communicated clearly.”<\/p>\n

She added: “People are budgeting and they need to know what’s coming down the tracks so they can plan for their fuel bills in the winter.<\/p>\n

“The uncertainty around the winter fuel payment has caused older people here significant stress so I would urge clarification for Northern Ireland pensioners as soon as possible.”<\/p>\n

Newtownabbey pensioner Margaret Galloway told the programme: “It makes a difference I’m not amongst the worst hit, I’m not too bad.<\/p>\n

“But now I feel a wee bit more relaxed about being able to put the heat on again if I need to.”<\/p>\n

She said lots of pensioners were in “real trouble” and some people she knows were making the decision between “whether to have a meal or put the heating on”.<\/p>\n

“It has caused a lot of people a lot of concern and anxiety,” she added.<\/p>\n

“I don’t think the Westminster government realised what they were doing when they cut it, they didn’t realise just how much trouble it was going to cause.”<\/p>\n

Many pensioners in Northern Ireland missed out on the winter fuel payment<\/a> last year after Northern Ireland followed the Westminster decision to make the payments means tested.<\/p>\n

The move, announced shortly after Labour took office last July, led to fierce criticism from unions and pensioner charities.<\/p>\n

An extra \u00a317m was found following a Stormont monitoring round and Lyons secured money to grant a \u00a3100 one-off payment to support pensioners who were affected by cuts to winter fuel support.<\/p>\n

What are Winter Fuel Payments? <\/p>\n

Winter Fuel Payments were created in 1997 to help everyone above state pension age with their winter heating bills. <\/p>\n

The Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, announced last year that winter 2024 would be the first time pensioners in England and Wales would not be eligible for the payment.<\/p>\n

Northern Ireland was forced to follow suit. <\/p>\n

Payments were then restricted to those on benefits and pension credit. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Enda McClafferty BBC News NI political editor BBC Margaret Galloway said a lot of pensioners were in real…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172252,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3093],"tags":[51,474,2499,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-172251","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-finance","10":"tag-personal-finance","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114657649311295596","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}