State pension warning as 60,000 older Brits risk losing vital benefit due to unfair rule

(WFP) for 2024 to 2025 are for those born before September 23, 1958 of £300 to help fuel their home during .

A person also needs to be receiving or another means-tested benefit in order to be eligible.

This was due to a new rule in July whereby the government said the payment would now be made only to those on low incomes who received certain benefits.

But another unfair rule brought in from 2019 has greatly impacted many other pensioners hoping to receive the .

This previous rule stated that if you're part of a couple and one is under state pension age and another over, they must apply for instead.

Those needing to make a claim on will only have a few days to do this as the deadline is October 18.

This is because can only be backdated one month.

Whereas pension credit claims can be backdated up to three months pushing the deadline to December 21.

According to AgeUK, stricter UC rules means couples are far less likely to successfully get their claim backdated to cover the qualifying period.

This means mixed-age couples making a claim now are very unlikely to be eligible for a with tens of thousands of pensioners being greatly affected by this unfair rule.

All is not lost however, as those with an active claim for UC during the qualifying week which ran from September 16 to 22 are able to qualify.

But they will need to be quick in order to backdate this claim and therefore receive the £300 WFP this year.

And for those who backdated claim is unsuccessful, it's strongly urged to still apply for UC as the benefit can be worth thousands of pounds a year and you can qualify for WFP next year, provided your circumstances don't change.

According to AgeUK, you can also ask for your UC to be backdated if you could not reasonably have claimed early due to an illness or disability provided you can show medical evidence.

A UC backdated claim is also allowed if the fault was down to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) due to either a computer failure or where a joint claim is refused or ended.

Mixed-age couples can claim UC until they both reach State Pension age (66), after which they can then claim pension credit.

Those claiming UC, PC or pension-age Housing Benefit on May 15, 2019, shouldn't be affected by the mixed age rule.