State pensioners told 'you are required' as DWP £150 rule explained

State pensioners told 'you are required' as DWP £150 rule explained Pensioners and others have been warned that inaction could hit you in the pocket State pensioners have been urged to do an online check. Sadly many thousands of people don't take action, to their financial detriment. Many people on low incomes, of working age and in retirement, miss out on extra DWP support to help towards covering their bills. Now is a good time to check what you are eligible for as there are several Government schemes that run through the colder months to help people pay for their higher energy usage. Abigail Everett, from Policy in Practice, spoke to the BBC Money Box show about the various support that is out there. Key requirement One scheme that she mentioned was the Warm Home Discount, a one-off £150 discount that is applied to your electricity bill, or to your dual fuel energy bill if you have this arrangement. Asked how this scheme works, she said: "It does require people to be claiming eligible means-tested benefits. We know that there are around 900,000 people who don't claim the Pension Credit that they're eligible for, and about 2.3 million people who don't claim Universal Credit that they're eligible for." Pension Credit is available to people of state pension age. The benefit tops up your income and being a claimant also opens up access to a lot of other Government support, such as the Warm Home Discount. How does Pension Credit work? To find out if you are eligible, there are several benefit calculator tools you can use online, such as the one on the Turn2us website. Pension Credit tops up your weekly income to £238 for single claimants and up to £363.25 if you have a partner. Ensure our latest DWP headlines always appear at the top of your Google Search by making us a Preferred Source. Click here to activate or add us as Preferred Source in your Google search settings. So if your qualifying income is less than these amounts, you may qualify for the benefit, and the extra support you can get along with it. However, the income limit may be higher for you, as you can get extra amounts on top of the income top-up depending on your situation, such as if you care for another adult. For couples, you both have to be of state pension age to qualify for Pension Credit. The average claim is worth more than £4,000 a year with all the support you can access as a claimant. What extra help can you get through Pension Credit? As a Pension Credit claimant, you can also access: - Cold Weather Payments - £25 payments that go out in areas of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland when temperatures fall below zero across seven consecutive days. If you live in Scotland, you instead get a £62 payment regardless of the weather, with the Winter Heating Payment - A free TV licence if you are aged 75 or over - Saving you £180 a year - Help with NHS and other medical costs. 'Huge amount' unclaimed Continuing her message on the BBC show, Ms Everett doubled down with her plea for people to check if they are eligible for any extra help. She urged: "There is a huge amount of support that is unclaimed. We know there's £24billion worth of support that goes unclaimed every year. "We would really urge people to use a free benefits calculator to identify if they're claiming everything that they are eligible for. And don't assume that you're not eligible just because you're not claiming currently." You can listen to the podcast in full on the BBC Sounds website.