79,997 pensioners to miss out on winter fuel payment

As Winter Fuel Payment confirmation letters begin arriving on doormats across England and Wales, pensioners are being notified whether they will receive this year’s heating allowance. 

However, new analysis reveals that despite soaring energy bills, almost 80,000 pensioners across England and Wales are set to just miss out on this year’s Winter Fuel Payment altogether – simply because they turned 66 after the government’s qualifying window closed on 22 September 2025.

As payments begin rolling out from 1st November, this means around £25 million in vital support will be kept out of the pockets of left-behind pensioners born between 22 September and 31 October 1959 – funds that could have helped them stay warm this winter.

The Winter Fuel Payment is a tax-free annual payment from the government that helps older people cover the cost of heating their homes during the colder months. The amount varies between £100 and £300, depending on your age and living circumstances.

With energy prices still high and colder weather on the way, it’s crucial that this group of new pensioners know how to stretch their heating budgets further.

Here, we outline how these left-behind pensioners can effectively double the value of the missed Winter Fuel Payment through simple energy-saving measures, helping them save £595.50 this winter:

1. Create ‘warm zones’ by heating specific rooms and closing doors to cut bills by nearly £400

Focusing heat where it’s needed most, such as the living room, can cut annual bills up to 37% which, based on the new and increased energy price cap of £1755, could save households up to £395.50.

For those who spend long hours at home, heating one or two main rooms rather than the whole property can significantly reduce gas use while maintaining comfort – additional features such as draft excluders and heavy curtains can keep even more warmth within rooms.

“There’s even ways of managing this without going through the effort of manually adjusting the thermostat in each room each day. Households can invest in thermostats with timers for each room or a smart heating system to take the hassle out of creating warm zones at home.

2. Turning down your thermostat by 1°C could nearly double your winter fuel payment

Turning your thermostat from 22°C to 21°C can save £90. It’s recommended that homes be kept between 18-21°C to prevent damp and mould, but lowering your thermostat slightly can also provide significant savings, helping the winter fuel payment go further.

Using a programmable thermostat to automatically reduce temperatures overnight or when you’re out can boost those savings even more without compromising comfort.

3. Attend a local community warm space to cut bills by £50

Attending free community ‘warm spaces’ or ‘warm banks’ gives residents a comfortable place to stay warm during the day. reducing the need to heat their own homes for as many hours. A pensioner visiting a public warm space each weekday over the five-month winter period could save at least £50 on their energy bills by avoiding just one hour of home heating per day. 

What’s more, warm spaces offer the added benefit of socialising with other local residents, tackling aspects like loneliness.

4. Lower your boiler flow temperature to pocket £60

Most boilers in UK households are set to unnecessarily high flow temperatures of up to 80°C. Reducing this to 60 °C improves the heating efficiency of your boiler by up to 9%, saving a typical dual-fuel household paying the October 2025 standard variable rate, that’s a saving of around £95 a year without affecting how warm your property gets.

This simple change can usually be made via the boiler control panel and takes just minutes – yet it’s one of the easiest ways to make your home more energy-efficient this winter.

5. Bonus tip: Save £30 a month by investing in solar panels

If it’s within your budget, solar panels can be a smart long-term investment. With UK electricity costing around £0.25 per kWh and the average home using about 9kWh a day in winter, a 4kW solar system generating 3-6kWh daily can cut bills by at least £30 a month – or £180 over the winter. And with the Smart Export Guarantee paying around £0.15 per kWh for excess energy, you can even earn money back. That kind of stability can make a real difference to your energy savings in the long run.

Notes to editors

To calculate how many pensioners will miss out on the Winter Fuel Payment in England and Wales for turning 66 after the cut off date of 22nd September 2025, The Solar Co used ONS data which shows that 748,501 Brits were born in 1959, the qualifying year, which gives an average of 2,051 per day. This figure was then multiplied by the number of days past between the end of the qualifying window, 22nd September, and 31st October – the day before payments are due to be sent out – which gives 79,997 pensioners.  

To calculate the savings that creating warm zones can provide, calculations assumed a household pays the 1st October energy price cap of £1755. Nesta estimates that 61% of energy bill costs come from heating, which means it typically costs £1,070 to heat a home annually. From this, it’s estimated that 37% of heating bills can be reduced via warm zones, which provides a saving of £395.50.

To calculate the cost savings of attending warm spaces, analysis assumed that attending a warm space each weekday for 20 weeks prevented switching on a typical gas boiler for 1 hour each day, which is a reduction in heating requirement of 8kW, based on typical household energy requirements – which totals 800kW energy savings across 20 weeks. Estimating a 90% boiler efficiency running on the October 1st standard variable rate tariff of  6.29 p/kWh for gas, it is estimated that this 800kW energy saving would cost £50.32.

Winter solar savings calculations all referenced from The Solar Co.

About George Penny

Based in Bromley, George Penny is the Director of The Solar Co. He has a passion for leading the UK’s transition to efficient and reliable renewable solutions for households and businesses alike.