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Pensioners urged to be alert to Winter Fuel Payment scams

ended 14. April 2026

Pensioners are being warned to be on high alert for scams as the recovery of Winter Fuel Payments begins this month, HMRC has said.

Almost two million people are expected to repay their winter 2025 payment due to their annual income being more than £35,000 – for most, an automatic process.

HMRC saw more than 25,000 Winter Fuel Payment scam referrals over the last 12 months and is warning that scammers may now use the recovery process as a hook to use texts, emails and phone calls to target this group.

Myrtle Lloyd, HMRC’s Chief Customer Officer, said: "Criminals are great pretenders and often use fake letters, emails, calls and texts to impersonate HMRC and trick people into giving them money.

“I’d encourage anyone who’s unsure to use our online tool at GOV.UK to check whether and how their payment will be recovered – there’s no need to call us.”

  • How dangerous are Winter Fuel Payments scams?
  • What advice would you give to people to avoid this scam?
  • Is it good that the government is warning people?

Responses asap.

1 responses from the Newspage community

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Colette Mason
AI Ethics Consultant at Clever Clogs AI
Twenty-five thousand scam referrals in twelve months tells you something has gone criminally wrong. The government designed a recovery process that is functionally indistinguishable from the tactics scammers use: worrying unexpected 'official' letters in the post and 'official' emails about money owed. Then it told vulnerable pensioners to be vigilant.

Genuine HMRC communications about Winter Fuel recovery say "no action required." Scam messages say "act now." But pensioners who've never had a payment clawed back before don't know the difference, and shouldn't have to.

Why has the government designed a system that throws down the red carpet for scammers and leads a steady stream of anxious seniors to them?

When your fraud prevention advice is "go to GOV.UK and check," aimed at people in their seventies and eighties who may not have reliable internet, nor a device, nor the confidence to use it without help, that's not robust pensioner protection. That's a fig leaf.