WATCH OUT FOR...
Sharp rise in Winter Fuel Payment scams
Scams and threats to avoid, plus new security tools
What’s the threat?
There’s been a sharp increase in scam text messages urging you to apply for 2025-2026 Winter Fuel Payments. Reports of these rose by 153 per cent in the final week of September, the Government said, following a decline over the summer.
The messages typically claim to be from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), and say it hasn’t received your application to receive the payments ( 1 in our screenshot) or that a “prior application was unsuccessful” 2 .