Winter fuel payment charge

Overview

A payment is made annually to people who have reached state pension age to help with the cost of home heating, unless they choose to opt out. The payment made to people living in England, Wales and Northern Ireland is known as the winter fuel payment. In Scotland it is known as the pension age winter heating payment. On this page we refer to both types of payment as the ‘winter payment’. 

From tax year 2025/26 HMRC will apply a tax charge which is designed to claw back the winter payment from most recipients whose income is more than £35,000. This charge is known as the winter fuel payment charge or the pension age winter heating payment charge – here, we refer to both as the ‘winter fuel payment charge’. People in receipt of certain state benefits are not liable to the charge. 

Who the charge applies to

You will need to pay the winter fuel payment charge if you receive a winter payment and both of the following apply to you: 

1. Your income in the tax year in which you receive the payment is over £35,000 (see below for more information on what counts as income); and 

2. You do not receive any of these state benefits: 

• universal credit
• pension credit
• income-based jobseeker’s allowance
• income support
• income related employment and support allowance.

To be exempt from the winter fuel payment charge you need to be receiving any of the above benefits in the third full week in September of the year in question – this is known as the ‘qualifying week’. For the 2025 winter payment the qualifying week was the week commencing Monday 15 September 2025. For the 2026 winter payment it is the week commencing 21 September 2026. 

What counts as income

To work out whether your income is more than £35,000 for the purposes of the winter fuel payment charge, you need to identify your taxable income in the tax year in which you receive the payment. For example, if you received the 2025 winter payment, your liability to the charge is determined based on your taxable income in tax year 2025/26 (that is, the year ended 5 April 2026). 

You only need to include your own income. The winter fuel payment charge does not take into account the income of anyone else in your household, including your spouse or civil partner. Each person in a household is assessed separately for the charge. 

When working out your taxable income you should include all your income apart from any tax-free income. So, you do not need to include the following amounts in your calculations:  

• Interest and dividends from ISA accounts.
• Income from NS&I premium bonds.
• Non-taxable state benefits.
• Self-employment profits where your gross income (before expenses) was not more than the trading allowance of £1,000.
• Property rental profits where your gross income (before expenses) was not more than the property allowance of £1,000. 

However, it is important to note that the following amounts are taxable and therefore you must include them in your calculations: 

• All savings income from savings held outside an ISA (do not deduct the personal savings allowance). 
• All dividend income from shares held outside an ISA (do not deduct the dividend allowance). 
• Taxable profits (after deduction of allowable expenses) from self-employment and property rental, unless your income is within the trading and property allowances referred to above. 
• Taxable state benefits (for example, the state pension, carer’s allowance, carer support payment, and jobseeker’s allowance).

If you have income from a joint source, for example, interest from a joint savings account or a jointly let property, you should include only your share of the income, as calculated for tax purposes.

How much is the charge

If the winter fuel payment charge applies to you, HMRC take back the full amount of your winter payment. The winter payment amount depends on your circumstances. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland the 2025 winter payment was between £100 and £300. In Scotland, it was between £101.70 and £305.10. 

How the charge is collected

HMRC collect your winter fuel payment charge alongside your income tax – you cannot pay it separately to your income tax liability, and you should not need to contact HMRC to arrange for it to be collected. Unless you report your income to HMRC on a tax return under Self Assessment or Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, HMRC collect the charge through Pay As You Earn (PAYE). 

If you complete a Self Assessment tax return 

HMRC collect your winter fuel payment charge by adding it to your Self Assessment tax bill. 

When completing your Self Assessment tax return you must ensure that the winter payment is included on your return for the tax year in which you received the payment. When completing the 2025/26 tax return you should enter the amount of the 2025 winter payment that you received in box 1 of page TR5 of the return, in the ‘Winter Fuel Payment (WFP) and Pension Age Winter Heating Payment (PAWHP) charge’ section. 

If you complete your tax return through your online tax account you may find that HMRC have automatically included the figure on your tax return; if it is not shown you need to add it in yourself. 

If you complete your tax return on paper you need to add it to the return yourself. 

  If your taxable income was below £35,000 or you received universal credit, pension credit, income-based jobseeker’s allowance, income support, or income related employment and support allowance in the ‘qualifying week’ (see above) you don’t need to pay the winter fuel payment charge. If this applies to you, you should not include your winter payment on your tax return. 

If the Making Tax Digital for Income Tax rules apply to you 

If you are required to report your income under the new Making Tax Digital for Income Tax rules from 2026/27 onwards, HMRC have told us that they intend to collect the winter fuel payment charge through your Making Tax Digital end of year tax return. We will provide more information on these arrangements when it is made available.  

  If you signed up to Making Tax Digital for Income Tax early as part of the testing phase, and will therefore be submitting an end of year tax return under Making Tax Digital for 2025/26, we understand you will not be able to include your winter fuel payment charge for that tax year. HMRC have said they will contact you separately to arrange for the charge to be collected. Note, this only applies to the winter fuel payment charge arising in 2025/26. The charge for future years should be reportable under the Making Tax Digital end of year tax return process. 

If you do not file a tax return 

If you do not file a tax return under Self Assessment or Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, HMRC collect the winter fuel payment charge by adjusting your PAYE tax code.  This enables HMRC to collect the charge by deducting it from your income that is taxed under PAYE, for example, income from an employment or a personal or workplace pension.

HMRC will collect your 2025 winter fuel payment charge by adjusting your tax code for tax year 2026/27. The adjustment will reduce your tax-free allowances in your code so that your PAYE tax paid increases by the amount of the winter payment you received. 

Depending on your circumstances, you may find that the total of the adjustments that are made to your tax code to collect tax on other income (for example, state pension) as well as your winter fuel payment charge exceeds your tax-free allowances.  In this case, a special tax code known as a K code will be generated. We explain more about these codes in our separate guidance.

If HMRC are unable to collect the full amount of the payment due through your PAYE code during the tax year, they will send you a simple assessment or P800 tax calculation after the end of the tax year to collect the further amount due. 

Example – tax code adjustment for a basic rate taxpayer

Olivier lives in England and received a 2025 winter payment of £200. His taxable income in tax year 2025/26 is £37,000, which includes personal pension income of £25,000, so he is a basic rate (20%) taxpayer. He must pay the 2025 winter fuel payment charge because his income was more than £35,000. 

To collect the 2025/26 winter fuel payment charge HMRC change Olivier’s 2026/27 PAYE tax code to include an adjustment of £1,000. This means that Olivier pays extra tax of £200 over the course of the 2026/27 year (20% of £1,000 is £200) – this is extra tax of approximately £17 each month (12 x £17 = £204).  This means that, by the end of the 2026/27 tax year, HMRC have collected the full amount of the 2025/26 winter payment charge from Olivier through the PAYE system. 

HMRC have confirmed that they plan to collect the 2026/27 and 2027/28 winter fuel payment charges by adjusting the 2027/28 tax code – that is, two amounts of the charge will be collected in one tax year. To take back a typical winter payment of £200 for each year, totalling £400, the PAYE tax paid in 2027/28 will increase by approximately £33 per month (12 x £33 = £396). The coding adjustments will differ slightly for Scottish taxpayers to reflect Scottish tax rates.  

The reason that HMRC will be collecting two years’ worth of winter fuel payment charge in a single tax year’s PAYE code is because it is their usual practice to collect tax due under PAYE ‘in-year’. The 2027/28 will therefore be a catch-up year to ensure that from 2028/29 onwards HMRC are collecting the estimated winter fuel payment charge for that same tax year. For example, the charge relating to the 2028 winter payment will be collected by adjusting the 2028/29 tax code. 

As the tax payments will start from the first PAYE payment of the tax year, which will usually be in April, recipients of the winter payment for years starting from 2027 may find that they start repaying the winter payment through PAYE before they actually receive it, given that it is usually paid in November or December.

You can use HMRC’s tool on GOV.UK to help you understand whether the winter payment charge applies to you and how it will be collected. 

Opting out

The winter payment is normally paid automatically to everyone who is eligible, but it is possible to opt out of receiving the payment. You may wish to consider doing this to prevent having the payment taken back by HMRC if you know that the winter fuel payment charge will apply to you because you are certain that your taxable income in the year will be more than £35,000, and you were not in receipt of any relevant benefits in the qualifying week. 

If you live in England, Wales or Northern Ireland you can opt out by completing an online form or by calling the Winter Fuel Payment Centre – see details on GOV.UK. The deadline for opting out of the 2026 winter payment is 20 September 2026 if you wish to do so online, or 18 September 2026 if you opt out by phone. 

If you live in Scotland you can opt out by submitting an online form which can be found on mygov.scot – the form is available until midday on 19 October 2026.  You can also opt out by calling Social Security Scotland. 

Once you have opted out you will not receive the winter payment again unless you opt back in. To opt back in, those living in England, Wales or Northern Ireland should contact the Winter Fuel Payment Centre. Those living in Scotland should call Social Security Scotland. 

Beware of scams

You do not need to do anything to arrange for HMRC to collect the winter payment charge. It is important that you are alert to the risk of scammers impersonating HMRC to trick you into giving them access to your money or online accounts. HMRC say that they will never contact people by text or email to ask them to repay their winter payment or provide their bank details. We have a separate guidance page on protecting yourself against HMRC-related scams. 

More information

More information on the winter payment can be found on government websites – please visit the page for your place of residence: England and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland.

HMRC’s guidance on the winter fuel payment charge can be found on GOV.UK.