[Apparelyzed]

Currently, the Winter Fuel Payment Scheme applies to help people aged 60 and over with the costs of keeping warm this winter.

If you are aged 60 to 79 and you are entitled to receive a Winter Fuel Payment, you will get either £100 or £200, depending on your circumstances in the qualifying week (18-24 September 2006).

If you are aged 80 or over and you are entitled to a Winter Fuel Payment, you will get an extra £50 or £100, so you could get up to £300, depending on your circumstances in the qualifying week.

You do not pay tax on Winter Fuel Payments.

The letter below is a template which was included in the latest edition of the Spinal Injuries Association magazine, to try and get this scheme extended to cover people with disabilities who have problems maintaining their body temperature.

Just download it, fill in the details, and post it to your local MP.

Attached File(s)

•  winter_fuel_payments.pdf (193.11K)
  Number of downloads: 81

[russ1]

I was listening to a radio program where a guy with a terminal injury was arguing the same thing. I started out fully in his support and by extension in support of anyone on med rate care component DLA.

However having heard the govt. spokesman this is a benefit paid to people on a pension. We get DLA (which pensioners can't claim) which is supposed to cover increased costs of heating amoung other things so my take on this now is that arguing that we should get Winter Fuel Payments is a bit like arguing that we should get a pension. Its apples and oranges, it's an easy target but what we should really be campaigning for is a DLA that realistically reflects all the additional costs of being disabled.

Just my 2p

[meshell]

I am on medium rate DLA, I don't believe I should receive help with my fuel bills, pensioners have far too much to pay towards as it is, they still have to pay council tax! so getting help with their fuel bills is a tiny portion of what they really deserve. DLA takes into account the extra costs disability can bring and no it isn't enough and doesn't truly depict the cost of being disabled or even take into account just what you lose when you become disabled. Lobbying for an increase in DLA is something I would agree with.

Who got the £10 christmas bonus? now how am I going to spend all that money!