Winter Fuel Payment clawback: 1.1m pensioners earning £35k+/yr to get HMRC letter, text or email – how to tell if yours is genuine

HMRC will ONLY contact you if your tax code is changing

If your annual income is above the £35,000 threshold, you'll repay the Winter Fuel Payment as extra tax alongside your normal Income Tax payments over the coming 2026/27 tax year.

This will be done through a change in your tax code for 2026/27 – it's this change that HMRC is contacting people about. Your tax code is what tells your private pension provider or employer how much tax to deduct before paying your income into your bank account.

You should expect to get a letter, text message, or email from HMRC in "early April" if...

1. You received the £200 or £300 payment for this winter – most likely in November or December 2025.
   
   AND
   

2. Your individual (NOT household) income is above £35,000 a year. See what counts.
   
   AND
   

3. You DON'T usually file self-assessment tax returns.

Registered for self-assessment? You WON'T get a letter

If you ARE registered for self-assessment, the payment should be automatically included on your online tax return for 2025/26 – HMRC won't notify you of this separately. If you don't see it on your online return, you will need to add it manually. This is for the previous tax year, which ended on Sunday 5 April 2026. You'll need to file this return online by 31 January 2027.

If you file a paper return, you will need to manually add the Winter Fuel Payment to this. Paper returns for the 2025/26 tax year are due by 31 October 2026.

HMRC estimates that around 900,000 people will have the Winter Fuel Payment clawed back through self-assessment, on top of the 1.1 million via your tax code.

How to tell if your HMRC letter, text or email is genuine

We are concerned that scammers could replicate the communications from HMRC, so want to help you spot a scam. Here's what to watch out for:

• Genuine HMRC letters will make it clear that NO action is required. The notice will simply explain that your tax code will be changed for the upcoming tax year, due to you needing to repay the Winter Fuel Payment you have received.

• Genuine HMRC texts and emails WON'T include any links. The messages will instead prompt you to navigate to Gov.uk yourself so you can check your new tax code in your personal tax account.

• If a letter, text or email claiming to be from HMRC is urging you to provide details or make a payment, it's likely a SCAM. If in any doubt, don't respond directly – contact HMRC using its official details listed on Gov.uk.

• Still not sure your notice is legitimate? Report it to HMRC. You can do this by:
  - forwarding suspicious texts to 60599;
  - forwarding suspicious emails to phishing@hmrc.gov.uk;
  - visiting GOV.UK to report a phone call you have received.

If you're worried you might be talking to a scammer, end all communication straight away and see our What to do if you think you've been scammed guide for more help.

Unsure if your Winter Fuel Payment needs to be repaid? How to check

If you've received the Winter Fuel Payment, you can use HMRC's online tool to check whether you'll need to repay it.

Want to avoid this next year? You can opt out of the payment

If you know your income for the 2026/27 tax year will stay above the £35,000 threshold, you can choose to opt out of receiving the Winter Fuel Payment next winter.

Opting out means you won't need to have the payment clawed back by HMRC later (since you won't get it in the first place).

You can opt out by completing a form on Gov.uk or calling the helpline on 0800 731 0160. You only need to do this once, assuming you don't opt back in later down the line only to need to opt out again.

If you do later want to opt back in – because your income has dropped, for example – you can do this by calling the same helpline on 0800 731 0160 or by writing to: Winter Fuel Payment Centre, Mail Handling Site A, Wolverhampton, WV98 1LR. In 2025/26, the deadline to opt back in was 31 March 2026, and it's likely to be 31 March again next year.