What this year's Yuma-Kofa game means for those involved, and how Southwest fared in Thursday night football action from El Centro
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HOUSEHOLDS have to apply for a government benefit by a certain date if they want to qualify for this year’s Winter Fuel Payment.
The Winter Fuel Payment was previously available to everyone aged 66 and above, the current State Pension age.
But in July the Government announced the payment would become means-tested meaning only those on certain benefits are eligible.
This includes those on income support, tax credits and Universal Credit, but also Pension Credit.
To qualify for this year’s Winter Fuel Payment, you must have an active claim for one of the qualifying benefits during what’s known as the “qualifying week” – this year that’s from September 16 to 22.
Therefore, you would expect that the deadline to claim Pension Credit to qualify for the Winter Fuel Payment was this Sunday.
However, claims for Pension Credit can in fact be backdated by up to three months.
It means the actual, final, deadline you have to apply for Pension Credit by in order to get the Winter Fuel Payment is December 21.
If you don’t apply for Pension Credit by this date, you won’t qualify for this year’s £300.
It’s worth bearing in mind that the amount you get for the Winter Fuel Payment varies depending on your age.
If you are aged between 66 and 79 you will get £200 while those aged 80 or over will receive £300.
Pension Credit is a government benefit designed to top up your weekly income if you are a state pensioner with low earnings.
The current state pension age is 66.
There are two parts to the benefit – Guarantee Credit and Savings Credit.
Guarantee Credit tops up your weekly income to £218.15 if you are single or your joint weekly income to £332.95 if you have a partner.
Savings Credit is extra money you get if you have some savings or your income is above the basic full state pension amount – £169.50.
Savings Credit is only available to people who reached state pension age before April 6, 2016.
Usually, you only qualify for Pension Credit if your income is below the £218.15 or £332.95 thresholds.
However, you can sometimes be eligible for Savings Credit or Guarantee Credit depending on your circumstances.
For example, if you are suffering from a severe disability and claiming Attendance Allowance, as well as other benefits, you can get an extra £81.50 a week.
Meanwhile, you can get either £66.29 a week or £76.79 a week for each child you’re responsible and caring for.
The rules behind who qualifies for Pension Credit can be complicated, so the best thing to do is just check.
You can do this by using the Government’s Pension Credit calculator on its website.
Or, you can call the Pension Service helpline on 0800 99 1234 from 8am to 5pm Monday to Friday.
Those in Northern Ireland have to call the Pension Centre on 0808 100 6165 from 9am to 4pm Monday to Friday.
It might be worth a visit to your local Citizens Advice branch too – its staff should be able to offer you help for free.
One additional and major perk of Pension Credit is that it is known as a “gateway” benefit in that it opens up a host of other freebies and perks.
This includes a free TV licence worth £169.50 a year if you are 75 or over and council tax discounts.
If you are on the Guarantee Credit part of Pension Credit, you also qualify for the Warm Home Discount.
Consumer reporter Sam Walker explains all you need to know about the payment.
The Winter Fuel Payment is an annual tax-free benefit designed to help cover the cost of heating through the colder months.
Most who are eligible receive the payment automatically.
Those who qualify are usually told via a letter sent in October or November each year.
If you do meet the criteria but don’t automatically get the Winter Fuel Payment, you will have to apply on the government’s website.
You’ll qualify for a Winter Fuel Payment this winter if:
If you did not live in the UK during the qualifying week, you might still get the payment if both the following apply:
But there are exclusions – you can’t get the payment if you live in Cyprus, France, Gibraltar, Greece, Malta, Portugal or Spain.
This is because the average winter temperature is higher than the warmest region of the UK.
You will also not qualify if you:
Payments are usually made between November and December, with some made up until the end of January the following year.
Do you have a money problem that needs sorting? Get in touch by emailing money-sm@news.co.uk.
Plus, you can join our Sun Money Chats and Tips Facebook group to share your tips and stories
MOHAMED Al Fayed allegedly forced staff to take sexual health tests with Harrods accused of covering up the rape claims against him.
Five women said they were raped by the Harrods tycoon, who died last year aged 94, and a further 20 female employees allege Al Fayed sexually assaulted them.
Multiple women who worked at Harrods from the late 1980s to 2000s said assaults were carried out at the company’s offices, in Al Fayed’s London apartment, or on foreign trips often in Paris at the Ritz hotel, according to an investigation by the BBC.
The new documentary – called Al Fayed: Predator at Harrods – heard claims that the store not only failed to intervene but also helped cover up allegations against the Egyptian billionaire.
Bruce Drummond, a barrister from a legal team representing a number of the women, said: “The spider’s web of corruption and abuse in this company was unbelievable and very dark.”
However, Harrods’ current owners said they were “utterly appalled” by the allegations, stressing the company today is “very different”.
Women recruited in their teens and early twenties to work as personal assistants in Al Fayed’s private office claimed that they were required by Wendy Snell, Harrods’s corporate GP, to undertake medicals that included intimate examinations.
Former staff claimed that the medical checkups were advertised as “an extra perk of the job” and because Al Fayed’s son Dodi “had a low immune system”.
However, they later made the harrowing discovery that it was preparing them for sexual abuse by Al Fayed, who was obsessed with hygiene.
One woman claimed she had a smear test and a doctor checked her ovaries.
“My results were sent directly to the chairman so quickly that by the time I had got back to my desk, he knew the results,” she alleged.
It is claimed that Al Fayed would regularly tour the department store’s sales floors to identify young female assistants he found attractive before isolating and attacking them.
Former staff members recalled how the billionaire initially seemed to be a father figure who told them to call him “Papa”.
A Harrods human resources manager between 1990 and 1994 said she was ordered by Al Fayed’s senior assistant to find attractive young sales assistants he had seen in the store and send them to his office.
Tony Leeming, a department manager, admitted: “It was well known and everyone knew about it and it was a joke.”
When female staff worked late, Al Fayed would encourage them to spend the night in apartments in a block he owned in Park Lane in Mayfair.
But multiple women allege that they were then invited to the Egyptian billionaire’s private apartment where he would appear wearing only a silk dressing gown.
Four women claimed Al Fayed raped them at the Park Lane property and 13 said they were sexually assaulted.
One woman told the BBC she was raped as a teenager in Fayed’s Park Lane apartment.
She said: “Mohamed Al Fayed was a monster, a sexual predator with no moral compass.”
Some assistants say they were taken to France where there were similar incidents at Villa Windsor in Paris — a former home of Edward VIII after his abdication with his wife Wallis Simpson.
Nine women say they were sexually assaulted by Al Fayed in Paris, including one who said she was raped.
Of the 13 women the BBC spoke to, four say Al Fayed raped them, and all said they felt intimidated by a culture of fear at Harrods.
One woman who spoke to the outlet said she approached police with a rape allegation in 2008 when she was 15, but no charges were filed.
Before the bombshell documentary was released yesterday, Al Fayed had already been accused of groping and sexually assaulting female employees across his lifetime – including a rape allegation which was investigated by police in 2015 but did not lead to any charges.
Now, more women who allege that they were attacked have come forward yesterday after the release of the BBC documentary.
Born in Egypt, Al Fayed was a businessman in the Middle East before moving to the UK in the 1970s.
He took control of Harrods in 1985, and purchased the Ritz hotel in Paris in 1979.
Harrods said it had settled “a number of claims [from women] who alleged historic sexual misconduct by Al Fayed” over the past 18 months.
The store said the women were not required to sign non-disclosure orders, which would prevent them discussing allegations.
Harrods said in a statement to the BBC: “The Harrods of today is a very different organisation to the one owned and controlled by Al Fayed between 1985 and 2010.
“It is one that seeks to put the welfare of our employees at the heart of everything we do.
“Since new information came to light in 2023 about historic allegations of sexual abuse by Al Fayed, it has been our priority to settle claims in the quickest way possible.
“This process is still available for any current or former Harrods employees.
“While we cannot undo the past, we have been determined to do the right thing as an organisation, driven by the values we hold today, while ensuring that such behaviour can never be repeated in the future.”
MOHAMED AL FAYED was best known as the owner of luxury department store Harrods and father of Princess Diana's boyfriend Dodi Al-Fayed.
The billionaire died in August 2023 at the age of 94, almost 26 years to the day after the passing of his son.
Heini Wathen married Mohamed Al-Fayed in 1985 and the couple went on to have four children together; Jasmine, Karim, Camilla and Omar.
Heini and Mohamed’s romance began after they were introduced by Mohamed’s son Dodi.
The couple are portrayed by Hanna Alström and Salim Daw in the sixth and final season of Netflix‘s The Crown.
Before marrying Heini, Mohamed had been wed once before.
In 1954 he tied the knot with Saudi Arabian author Samira Khashoggi.
The pair split after two years but welcomed son Dodi together in 1955.
Dodi is Samira and Mohamed’s only child, but Mohamed went on to have four more kids with his second wife.
Prior to his death, Mohamed lived in a house near Oxted with his wife Heini.
The family estate in Surrey, named Barrow Green Court, is where both Mohamed and his son Dodi are buried.
His eldest son – Dodi – was killed alongside Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997.
