The short answer
At the October 2026 price cap, a £200 Winter Fuel Payment buys 2,509 kWh of gas or 760 kWh of electricity. A £300 payment buys 3,764 kWh of gas or 1,140 kWh of electricity. Standing charges take £153.81 of it first, before any energy is used at all.
The Winter Fuel Payment is set in pounds. Heating is priced in pence per kilowatt hour, and that price changed on 1 October 2026. So the question worth asking is not how much the payment is, which GOV.UK answers in a line, but how much heating it pays for.
This page does the conversion at the current cap rates and shows the working. It is not eligibility advice and it does not tell you whether to opt out.
Every payment rate, converted
| Payment | Who gets it | Gas, kWh | Electricity, kWh | Share of a year’s gas | Share of a year’s electricity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £100 | Care home resident, born 28 September 1946 to 27 June 1960 | 1,255 | 380 | 13.2% | 15.2% |
| £150 | Care home resident, born before 28 September 1946 | 1,882 | 570 | 19.8% | 22.8% |
| £200 | Living alone, born 28 September 1946 to 27 June 1960 | 2,509 | 760 | 26.4% | 30.4% |
| £300 | Living alone, born before 28 September 1946 | 3,764 | 1,140 | 39.6% | 45.6% |
Gas at 7.97p per kWh and electricity at 26.32p per kWh, the Ofgem cap rates for direct debit customers in England, Scotland and Wales for 1 October to 31 December 2026. Annual shares use Ofgem’s medium household figures of 9,500 kWh of gas and 2,500 kWh of electricity, which changed on 1 July 2026. Unit rates only, standing charges excluded from this table and dealt with below.
The standing charge first call
Every dual fuel home pays two standing charges every day, whether it uses any energy or not. At the October 2026 cap those are 54.83p a day for electricity and 29.68p a day for gas, which is 84.51p a day together.
There are 182 days between 1 October 2026 and 31 March 2027. Held at those rates, the standing charges alone come to £153.81. We call this the standing charge first call, the part of the payment that is spoken for before a radiator is turned on.
| Payment | Winter standing charges | Left for energy | Gas that remainder buys |
|---|---|---|---|
| £100 | £153.81 | £53.81 short | none |
| £150 | £153.81 | £3.81 short | none |
| £200 | £153.81 | £46.19 | 580 kWh |
| £300 | £153.81 | £146.19 | 1,834 kWh |
Both care home rates are smaller than a dual fuel home’s standing charges across the same winter, which is why those two rows show a shortfall rather than a remainder. A care home resident is not usually the bill payer for the home, so read those rows as a scale comparison rather than a household budget.
On a £200 payment, the 580 kWh of gas left after standing charges is 6.1% of what Ofgem now counts as a medium household’s gas use for a whole year. Standing charges vary by region, and ours are the national cap figures. Our standing charge postcode report has the regional spread.
The yardstick moved, the payment did not
On 1 July 2026 Ofgem cut its typical domestic consumption values, the reference figures used to describe a normal household. Medium gas use went from 11,500 kWh a year to 9,500 kWh, and medium electricity from 2,700 kWh to 2,500 kWh.
That revision changes how adequate the payment looks without changing anything about the payment or about any actual home. The same £200, buying the same 2,509 kWh of gas, covered 21.8% of the old medium household’s annual use and covers 26.4% of the new one. Nobody got warmer. The measuring stick got shorter.
Ofgem gives the reason for the cut as sustained falls in typical household demand, from efficiency improvements, milder weather and households cutting back on cost. The last of those is worth sitting with, because a payment that looks better against a yardstick shortened partly by people using less heat is not the same as a payment that goes further.
The payment itself, in brief
For winter 2026 to 2027 the payment is £200 or £300 depending on date of birth, and £100 or £150 for people living in a care home. It is paid automatically to most people over State Pension age. If your income is over £35,000 HMRC recovers it, through your tax code or a Self Assessment return.
Two dates matter this month. The qualifying week is 21 to 27 September 2026, and anyone who wants to opt out has to do so before 11:59pm on 20 September 2026. Both come from GOV.UK, read on 7 September 2026. We are not the authority on eligibility and we do not try to be. Check it on GOV.UK, or take free advice from Age UK.
The catch
The January cap has not been set. Ofgem announces the rates for 1 January to 31 March 2027 in late November 2026, so the £153.81 standing charge figure and the winter comparisons hold only if October’s rates carry through the whole winter. They may not. We will restate the figures when the January cap is published.
There is one more thing sitting inside the electricity numbers. Ofgem states that there is no VAT on electricity from 1 October 2026 to 31 March 2027. The 26.32p rate above already reflects that, so the electricity conversions on this page are winter figures and will not hold from 1 April 2027.
What this page cannot tell you
- Whether you are eligible. That is GOV.UK’s question, not ours.
- What your own home costs to heat. Consumption varies by insulation, occupancy, thermostat setting and the weather, and no national average describes any real house.
- What you pay if you are not on direct debit. Standard credit and prepayment rates differ from the ones used here.
- Your regional standing charge. The cap sets these by region and we have used the national figures.
- Anything about whether to opt out. That is a tax question and we are not advisers.
Method and sources
- Payment rates and dates. GOV.UK, Winter Fuel Payment, read 7 September 2026.
- Unit rates and standing charges. Ofgem energy price cap, 1 October to 31 December 2026, direct debit, England, Scotland and Wales. Electricity 26.32p per kWh and 54.83p a day. Gas 7.97p per kWh and 29.68p a day.
- Typical consumption. Ofgem review of typical domestic consumption values, decision published May 2026, in force from 1 July 2026. Medium gas 9,500 kWh, medium electricity 2,500 kWh, profile class 1.
- The arithmetic. Payment divided by unit rate for the kWh columns. Standing charges are 54.83p plus 29.68p multiplied by the 182 days from 1 October 2026 to 31 March 2027. Every figure on this page can be reproduced from those three inputs.
- Rounding. kWh figures are rounded to whole numbers, money to the penny. Percentages are worked from unrounded values.
More on how we work is on our methodology page. If you want the cost side in more detail, our running cost index prices common appliances at the same cap rates, the heating cost index does the same for heating methods, and our October 2026 price cap page sets out what changed. Help with bills beyond this payment is collected on our UK home energy grants page.
Questions people ask
How much gas does a £200 Winter Fuel Payment buy?
2,509 kWh at the October 2026 cap rate of 7.97p per kWh, before standing charges. After the winter’s standing charges of £153.81 the remainder buys about 580 kWh.
How much electricity does a £200 Winter Fuel Payment buy?
760 kWh at the October 2026 cap rate of 26.32p per kWh, before standing charges.
Does the Winter Fuel Payment cover a winter of heating?
Not for a typical household. A £200 payment covers 26.4% of Ofgem’s medium annual gas use before standing charges are counted, and 6.1% once they are.
When is the deadline to opt out of the Winter Fuel Payment?
Before 11:59pm on 20 September 2026 for winter 2026 to 2027, according to GOV.UK. The qualifying week is 21 to 27 September 2026.