WINTER fuel claimants have just weeks to claim their £200 payment.
The deadline for the Government scheme which aims to ease the hardship of the elderly runs out on March 31.
Anyone aged 60 or over and claiming benefit is entitled to automatically receive a payment.
The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) says only about 10,000 payments from an estimated 11.5m are still to be made.
It says a small number of people with no record of benefit claims may have slipped through the net.
Andy Collins, a DWP spokesman, said: "There cannot be more than a thousand people in the North-East who are entitled to a payment who have not already had one."
Anyone who feels they may fit into this category should contact their local social security office or job centre.
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