Background and methodology: Winter Fuel Payment statistics for winter 2025 to 2026

Question 1

1. Introduction

Accepted Answer

This report provides information on the methodology used to create the Winter Fuel Payment (WFP) Official Statistics for winter 2025 to 2026 published on the 15 September 2026.

Statistics are available on Stat Xplore and report on recipients and beneficiaries of WFP.

The statistics cover WFP made to England and Wales. Information on the methodology used for previous releases can be found in previous releases.

Question 2

2. Overview of the Statistics

Accepted Answer

Eligibility

The Winter Fuel Payment (WFP) was introduced in 1997 and is an annual tax-free payment made to eligible people of state pension age to help towards their winter heating costs. It is a lump sum payment, depending on the recipient’s age and circumstances during the qualifying week, and in most cases is paid automatically between November and December.

The eligibility criteria changed for winter 2025 to 2026, meaning that most pensioners living in England and Wales received a WFP (for those born on or before 21 September 1959). If a recipients’ income was over £35,000, the WFP was recovered by HMRC. However, these statistics report on payments made by DWP to pensioners living in England and Wales and do not include statistics on subsequent recoveries made by HMRC.

The statistics exclude pensioners who opted-out of receiving a WFP before the payment was made.

Metrics

These statistics are available by region, Local Authority and Westminster parliamentary constituency.

Dissemination

Key insights from these statistics are summarised in an annual statistical bulletin.

Summary statistics in tabular form are also published alongside the bulletin together with supporting guidance, notes and sources. For users who want to do their own analysis including for small areas, the statistics from winter 2020 to 2021 onwards are published on Stat Xplore.

Question 3

3. Source Data

Accepted Answer

Source Data

These statistics use administrative data from the Seasonal Payment System. An extract of the system is taken each year, weekend of 4 July 2026 this year, and is used as the basis for the WFP statistics.

Geographical information, age, and gender of recipients are derived from the Customer Information System (CIS).

Whilst every effort is made to collect data to the highest quality, as with all administrative data it is dependent on the accuracy of information entered into the system. Checks are made throughout the process from collection of the data to producing the statistics, but some data entry or processing errors may filter through to the data used to produce the statistics.

Data Validation

Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) staff follow detailed guidance and undergo training to minimise errors during data entry. Further automatic validation checks are carried out after this, and they include:

personal details checked against CIS data
rule-based checks at different stages of a claim’s lifecycle

As WFP are made to those eligible of the State Pension age, further checks are made against the relevant datasets to check validity.

Data Cleaning

The source data includes additional entries for recipients that have had an adjustment to their WFP allowance eligibility during the payment period. These additional entries are removed by using the latest adjustment for each recipient, ensuring each recipient only appears once and the most up to date information is used in the compilation of these statistics.

Data compilation and methodology

This section describes the methodology underpinning the WFP statistics. It explains how data are linked together and how new variables are created.

Information on the methodology used for previous releases can be found in previous releases.

Beneficiaries

The number of beneficiaries of WFP is derived from identifying eligible partners through the Pension Credit (PC) and Universal Credit (UC) household datasets.

To identify eligible partners of those claiming Pension Credit, scans of the ‘Pension Credit Customer’ and ‘Pension Credit Non-Customer’ datasets were taken for the week after the end of the qualifying period (15 to 21 September 2025) , the week after the 21 December 2025 and the middle of March 2026.

The PC claim start date, had to be before, or within the qualifying period.

The following information was taken from the databases:

Encrypted NINo
Non-customer Encrypted NINo
Non-customer Date of Birth
Claim Start Date
Partner Flag

Using the following rules, a partner dataset was created to merge onto the WFP extract:

Partner flag on the customer dataset had to be ‘yes’
Non-customer type had to be ‘partner (alias)’ or ‘partner (real)’
Non-customer Date of Birth had to be before the 22 September 1959
Customer NINo had to be present in WFP scan

Note: any duplicate entries were removed

To identify eligible partners in the UC Household dataset the UC Household dataset was used. The rules were:

Claim month was November 2025
A NINo had to be provided for ‘Partner NINo variable’
Date of birth had to be before 22 September 1959 (to make them aged 66 or older by the end of the qualifying week for WFP

Note: duplicate entries were removed.

To create a total number of partners to merge on to the WFP dataset, the pension credit partners and UC household partner datasets were merged together with any duplicates removed.

These partners were then merged on to the WFP dataset, creating a partner flag which was used to create the beneficiary variable (by adding recipients with the number of partners).

Geography

The Customer Information System (CIS) is used to provide the geographical data associated with each claim and is linked via the recipient’s encrypted National Insurance Number (NINo). The geographical information reported in these statistics shows where the recipient lived on the reference date, in this case the last date of the qualifying week for the relevant year. Where geography information is missing, an ‘Unknown’ value is assigned, and these show as ‘unknown’ within England and Wales data breakdown tables.

Age

The age of a recipient (in years) is derived from their date of birth on CIS. Age is calculated as at the relevant time point of interest, in this case at the last date of the qualifying week for the relevant year of claims.

Gender

Gender is sourced from CIS which reports male, female or unknown. Unknown cases are included in the total caseload statistics but as there are negligible unknown cases, further breakdowns are not provided.

Payment amounts

From winter 2025 to 2026, payment amounts are categorised as £100, £150, £200 or £300. The latest payment amounts for WFP are published on GOV.UK.

Scotland

WFP are now devolved in Scotland and Scotland provide a Pension Age Winter Heating Payment which commenced for Winter 2024 to 2025. As this benefit is now devolved, coverage of the WFP statistics now relate solely to England and Wales.

Question 4

4. Statistical Presentation

Accepted Answer

Recipients and beneficiaries

The supplementary tables published with the WFP statistics for winter 2025 to 2026 show, for England and Wales:

Table 1: WFP recipients by region, payment amount, beneficiaries
Table 2: WFP recipients by local authority, payment amount, beneficiaries
Table 3: WFP recipients by Westminster parliamentary constituency, payment amount, beneficiaries

Statistical concepts and definitions

The following metrics are used within the WFP statistics:

Age Band – recipients are placed in the age categories ‘66 to 69’, ’70 to 74’, ’75 to 79’ or ’80 plus’. Individual ages are published too
Gender – categorised as male or female
Payment amounts – categorised as £100, £150,£200 or £300. Payment amounts are dependent on age and household circumstances
Geography – region, local authority, Westminster parliamentary constituency and small area Census-based geographies on StatXplore

Other metrics referenced in the WFP statistics are:

Recipients – number of people recorded as having received a WFP for the given year
Beneficiaries – refers to the number of recipients, plus the number of eligible partners of recipients of WFP
Data reference period – the period of time covered by the statistical release, in this case the winter period
Perturbation – a technique that adds ‘noise’ to a dataset or statistics to ensure confidentiality of individual records
Qualifying Week – eligibility for WFP is determined by an individual’s circumstances during a given week each year, (usually the week beginning the third Monday of September)

Question 5

5. Uses of the Statistics

Accepted Answer

Using the definitions below, we have been able to identify our users and potential users.

Term	Definition
Relevance	how the statistics meet the needs of current and potential users for both coverage and content. Innovation is pursued to continuously improve statistical output.
User	Any person or organisation whose work, actions or decisions are influenced by official statistics or by messages derived from statistical data.
Potential User	can be any person or organisation who might be influenced by the statistics.

These identified users were divided into two groups:

internal users
external users

Internal Users

Our internal users comprise of employees within the Department for Work and Pensions including Marketing and Communication, Policy and Strategy, Analysts and the Freedom of Information Team. This group uses the statistics to answer questions from the public, media, government agencies, parliamentary questions and research groups. The statistics help inform policy by identifying how much has been spent, forecasting future spending and making sure the right benefit groups are being helped.

The WFP statistics can be used for:

general expenditure and distribution of the payment
impact assessments of the changes to and maintenance of the WFP policy
annual budget and spending round costs
from winter 2024 to 2025, a measure of the number of beneficiaries of WFP
Ministerial Briefings
answering Parliamentary Questions (PQs) published on the UK Parliament website
answering Freedom of Information (FOI) requests

External Users

External users include our stakeholders for example, devolved administrations, press, journalists, researchers and academics, and voluntary organisations and charities. The external group uses the statistics for research purposes and awareness.

Question 6

6. Quality

Accepted Answer

Quality Management

This report assesses the quality of WFP statistics using the European Statistics System (ESS) Quality Assurance Framework (QAF). This is the method recommended by the Government Statistical Service (GSS) Quality Strategy. Statistics are of good quality when they are fit for their intended use.

The ESS QAF measures the quality of statistical outputs against the dimensions of

relevance
accuracy and reliability
timeliness and punctuality
accessibility and clarity
comparability and coherence

The GSS also recommends assessment against three other principles in the ESS QAF. These are:

trade-offs between output quality components
confidentiality and transparency
balance between performance, cost and respondent burden

These dimensions and principles cross the three pillars of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics.

Quality Assurance During Development

During the initial development various activities took place:

collaboration with data providers to understand the impact of the change of data source on the statistical outputs
work to match variables on the old system to variables on the new system to ensure the new data could match existing user needs
understanding suitability of additional data sources (CIS) to fill in missing information

Checks were performed to assess:

reliability, completeness, and level of disclosure of individual variables
comparability of data from the old source to the new source
levels of duplicate, missing or contradictory information
comparability to related statistics such as Pension Credit
from Winter 2024 to 2025, we have access to Management Information which can be used for quality assurance purposes to check against payments issued and pension credit claims.

Routine Quality Assurance

A general quality assurance checklist is provided to all statistical producers in DWP. This checklist conforms to Quality Assurance of Administrative Data guidance and has been approved by the Government Statistical Service (GSS). This has been tailored for the WFP statistics production process.

Each year several checks are made and double checked by a second analyst:

Ensuring code has been updated correctly during data extraction.
Comparing figures with last publication.
Comparing trends over time.
Ensuring all figures are correctly cited in the publication (i.e. release document and summary tables).
Ensuring commentary and supporting information is accurate and impartial.

Accessibility and Clarity

Term	Definition
Accessibility	The ease with which users can access the data, also reflecting the format in which the data are available.
Clarity	The quality and sufficiency of the metadata, illustrations and accompanying advice.

Accessibility

WFP statistics follow best practice and guidance from the Government Digital Service and Government Statistical Service in publishing statistics that are accessible to users with a range of disabilities.

The statistics are also released in open formats so that they are accessible in a range of free software applications including:

the statistical bulletin is published in HTML format on GOV.UK to Government Digital Service accessibility standards, giving equality of access to all users
tables released as ODS files
statistics for Winter 2020 to 2021 onwards are available on Stat Xplore

WFP statistics are covered by the:

Clarity

WFP statistics contain contact details for further information on the statistics, guidance on using the statistics, data sources, limitations, and other necessary relevant information to enable users of the data to interpret and apply the statistics correctly.

Accuracy and Reliability

Term	Definition
Accuracy	This is the proximity between an estimate and the unknown true value.
Reliability	This is the closeness of early estimates to subsequent estimated values.

In most cases, WFP is paid automatically, however, for those people who must claim WFP processing errors could occur during data entry onto the WFP Seasonal Payment System.

To mitigate against these:

data provided by the recipient is validated at different stages of the WFP process
DWP staff undergo training on how to input data correctly
a set of automated checks take place when data is inputted to check for eligibility (for example date of birth)
the use of variables which are susceptible to processing errors are avoided

To maintain confidentiality of recipients, data within the WFP supplementary tables are perturbed. This means that a small random error is purposefully introduced.

Coherence and comparability

Term	Definition
Comparability	This is the degree to which data can be compared over time, region, or another domain
Coherence	This is the degree to which the statistical processes use the same concepts and harmonised methodology. With the goal being able to combine and make joint use of related data from different data sources.

Comparability to other statistics

These statistics cover England and Wales. As WFP are devolved for Northern Ireland (NI), comparable benefit statistics for NI can be found within the NI Department for Communities: Annual Report on the Social Fund 2023 to 2024. Information about the Pension Age Winter Heating Payment for Scotland winter 2025 to 2026.

WFP expenditure figures can be found within the benefit expenditure and Caseload statistics.

Data Revision

There are scenarios that may require revisions or change to published Official Statistics. These changes and how they are handled are:

methodological changes – if the data source or methodology is improved and changes to historical numbers are significant enough that a revision of previously released tables is needed, DWP will announce the date for the release of revised number or our intention to change the methodology in advance
correction of errors – although we do perform extensive quality assurance on raw data and statistical tables prior to publication, occasionally errors can occur. In this rare case, we thoroughly investigate how it occurred and strengthen our processes where necessary. Any erroneous statistics are removed and corrected as soon as possible, and users will be informed of the error and any implications on the WFP statistics landing pages. Any corrections will be recorded and highlighted on the WFP collection page

Performance, cost and respondent burden

Data is taken from administrative databases used for the operation of WFP, supplemented by data from existing central data sources to minimise burden on data required from recipients and data providers.

Datasets produced for official statistics are re-used within the department for policy and operational analysis.

Status of the Statistics

These statistics have been classed as Official Statistics since September 2023.

Timeliness and Punctuality

Term	Definition
Timeliness	This refers to the lapse of time between publication and the period to which the data refer.
Punctuality	This refers to the time lag between the actual and planned dates of publication

Timeliness

Most people will receive WFP automatically. WFP statistics are published in September covering the previous winter period. To allow for processing of pension credit claims, a data extract was created weekend of 4 July 2026. The statistics will not include any (small number of) payments made after the extraction date.

Punctuality

WFP Statistics are published at 9.30am on the day that is pre-announced. The release calendar is updated at the earliest opportunity to inform users of any change to the date of the statistical release and will include a reason for the change. All statistics will be published in compliance with the release policies in the Code of Practice for Statistics.

Confidentiality, Security and Transparency

Personal identifiers on the data provided from administrative systems are encrypted to prevent identification of individuals within the data.

Data is held securely with access given only to analysts who have completed internal data access and security training and have a business need to access the data.

For confidentiality purposes, perturbation is used on the data used in the publication. Perturbation is a technique that adds ‘noise’ to a dataset or figures to ensure confidentiality of individual records. The level of ‘noise’ added is minimal and would not impact any further analysis, however, for this reason column totals may not sum.

Frequency

WFP statistics are published annually and cover the winter period of the previous year.

Question 7

7. Feedback

Accepted Answer

WFP statistics are published by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

If you would like to offer feedback or require further information on these statistics, please contact: wfp.statistics@dwp.gov.uk

For media enquiries on these statistics, please contact the DWP press office.

These contact details are for questions regarding the statistics and are unable to provide any information or assistance with claiming Winter Fuel Payment.

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