Just got notification of my £350 winter fuel payment.
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Great news scot37.
Am getting £600 this year.
Think because I am over 80 and live alone
My partner is 10 years younger than me, I think she will get £250.
I’m grateful for mine although I’ve not received letter yet
I’m gonna have to take a serious look at my payments from the DWP and those of my wife as I know it’s a sizeable amount we hand over to our children in various proportions. It’s a little wonder the country is skint 
I’m getting £500 , households will receive a £300 pensioner cost of living payment as a top up to their Winter Fuel Payment later this year increasing payments to £500 for households with someone aged 66-79
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That’s good news … I’ll be able to afford a few Indian take-aways this winter … 
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It just all goes into my account and I pay my bills as and when. I am in credit with my energy supplier, so they will tell me when the DDs need to be raised to cover higher energy costs.
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I must admit I like the way the Labor government paid our electricity supplement (or what ever it was called). It was divided into four and is automatically deducted from the quarterly electricity bill by the supplier, who I presume bills the government.
I suppose if you have electricity and gas for your heating that would make it a difficultly. To be honest I think $20 would cover my annual heating bill (unless you count my hot water heater but that is off peak and on all year round)
That sounds similar to the way we received funds from the Energy Bill Support Scheme last year - the energy companies credited the money directly to each household’s electricity account in monthly instalments, then claimed it back from the Govt.
I expect that was the easiest way of doing it because every household was eligible to receive a payment and the majority of households have an electricity supply.
Those households which have alternative fuel sources, such as people living permanently on a houseboat, had to have different arrangements.
In UK, The Winter Fuel Payment is an extra benefit given only to people in receipt of a State Pension. They are eligible to receive it whether they have their own household or live with someone else, so the easiest way of identifying who is eligible is to use their National Insurance records and send the payment to the same account as their Pension is paid to.
I should have made it clear that only pensioners received the electricity supplement I referred to but they know who are pensioners because we also get a discount on our electricity anyway.
That is a good idea that should be adopted here. It’s only recently that prepayment customers are charged the same unit rate that direct debit customers are charged and that change has been long overdue.
Out of interest, what happens in Australia if a Pensioner moves into the home of a family member?
Can the Pensioner nominate the household energy account of the family to receive the energy discount or supplement payments?
I don’t know for sure but I think the account has to be in the pensioner’s name so you would have to take over the account to get the discount.
You get a discount on Council rates, water rates, free driving licence and free car rego as a pensioner all you need is your Centrelink CRN number for an aged pension or a Seniors Card (for some benefits)
And a free coffee at Maccas or Hungry Jacks 
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That discount card is a fantastic idea and I will be writing to my MP this evening drawing his attention to it with a view to introducing such a scheme over here in the UK 
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The full £500 for me has arrived and will be duly spent … 
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What, you have your money already? We have not even had the letter. Sheeezze. 
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My letter was sent out on 15 October. I haven’t received any payment yet but the letter states that most payments will be made during November and December, so there’ll be plenty of folk who haven’t received their payments yet.
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We received our letter 2 weeks ago saying payments would be made during November/December.
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