Pension Age Winter Heating Payment: Equality Impact Assessment

Pension Age Winter Heating Payment (PAWHP) - Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA)

Title of Policy

Pension Age Winter Heating Payment (PAWHP)

Summary of aims and desired outcomes of Policy

On 18 June 2025 the Scottish Government announced that it will bring forward regulations to ensure that from winter 2025/26, Pension Age Winter Heating Payment (PAWHP) will be paid to all pensioners, and will be automatically recovered through taxation from those pensioners with a personal income of over £35,000 per year. This tax charge will be introduced through separate legislation brought forward by the UK Government.

This will be a single annual household payment of £305.10 for pension aged individuals aged 80 and over, or whose partner in a joint claim to a relevant benefit has reached that age, with £203.40 for pension aged individuals below the age of 80.

We had already laid legislation before Parliament for our planned Pension Age Winter Heating Payment this winter. This legislation was lodged in order to protect pensioners in Scotland against the UK Government’s planned cuts to winter fuel payments.

Following the UK Government’s decision to change its approach in June 2025 to winter fuel payments, the Scottish Government have decided to withdraw their current amendment regulations and lay new regulations. Following careful consideration, the Scottish Government will mirror the revised approach by the UK Government. This approach ensures that a higher level of support is provided to those most in need. With over 720,000 Scottish pensioners estimated to benefit from this higher payment who would have otherwise received a lower payment.

The policy intention is that PAWHP’s are paid on a household basis. To deliver PAWHP as a household payment, we will take into account that while payments for those in receipt of a relevant benefit are paid to a lead claimant, entitlement for all other pensioners is determined and payments made on an individual basis. Thus an amount an individual pensioner gets depends on their household circumstances. The intended payment rates are £101.70, £152.55, £203.40 and £305.10 for individuals. Thus a typical pensioner household where the oldest person is under 80 will receive £203.40 and a household containing a person aged 80 or over will receive £305.10. There will be exceptions to this, for example where a couple of pensionable age with individual incomes of £35,000 or less live with another pensioner who is in receipt of a relevant benefit. In these circumstances we will continue the approach that pensioner households have been familiar with under the previous Winter Fuel Payment (WFP) of splitting the payment, with each pensioner in the household receiving a ‘shared rate’. For those in receipt of Pension Credit or other relevant means-tested benefits, the payments are made to the relevant claimant on behalf of the household as a whole.

Shared rate payments will also apply to those living in residential care who are not in receipt of a relevant means tested benefit and meet the income threshold.

The Scottish Fiscal Commission estimates that there will be a total investment of £151 million in 2025/26 for our revised Pension Age Winter Heating Payment providing support to 860,000 pensioners.^[1]

This equality impact assessment considers the impact of this change.

Directorate:

Social Security Directorate

Division:

Social Security Policy Division

Team:

Winter Heating Benefits Policy Team