Pension Age Winter Heating Payment: Fairer Scotland Duty Assessment
The Fairer Scotland Duty (FSD) assessment carried out in relation to the Winter Heating Assistance (Pension Age) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2025
Footnotes
1 Scenario modelling 2023 fuel poverty levels under 2019 fuel prices - gov.scot
2 Scotland’s Economic and Fiscal Forecasts Update – June 2025
3 Scottish House Condition Survey: 2023 Key Findings
4 Scotland’s Economic and Fiscal Forecasts Update – June 2025
5 Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018 (legislation.gov.uk)
6 Low Income Winter Heating Assistance Consultation: Scottish Government Response
7 Pension Age Winter Heating Payment - Scottish Government Consultation
8 Social Security (Amendment) (Scotland) Bill
9 Social Security experience panels: cold spell and winter fuel payment – 2020 report
10 Pension Age Winter Heating Payment Consultation
11 Social Security Experience (www.gov.scot)
12 Scottish House Condition Survey: 2023
13 Not enough to live on : Pensioner poverty in Scotland (Independent Age)
14 Not enough to live on : Pensioner poverty in Scotland (Independent Age)
15 Projected Population of Scotland: 2022-based - National Records of Scotland (NRS)
16 Projected Population of Scotland: 2022-based - National Records of Scotland (NRS)
18 Pensioner Poverty: challenges and mitigations
19 Fuel Poverty (Target, Definition and Strategy) and Fuel Poverty Strategy: health impact assessment
20 energy-crisis-parliamentary-briefing---january-2022.pdf
22 Poverty and Income Inequality in Scotland 2020-23
23 Living longer - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)
24 Tackling Fuel Poverty in Scotland: A Strategic Approach
25 Credit where it’s due: A briefing on low uptake of Pension Credit (Independent Age)
26 This distributional analysis is conducted using UKMOD microsimulation model and explores the impact of the latest policy in 2025-26. While it is not possible to model all household circumstances, the estimates remain robust: the approach ensures that total spending and caseload broadly align with forecasts from the Scottish Fiscal Commission for different policy options. The latest policy is compared against two counterfactuals: (a) The policy announced at the 2025-26 Scottish Budget, which restricts eligibility of the £203.40 and £305.10 payments to households receiving a qualifying benefit and pays £100 to all other pensioner households; (b) the universal policy which was in effect before 2024.
27 Scotland’s Economic and Fiscal Forecasts – December 2024 | Scottish Fiscal Commission – Supplementary Figures – Figure 5.2
28 Scotland’s Economic and Fiscal Forecasts Update – June 2025
29 The Scottish Fiscal Commission have said that their June 2025 illustrative figures are not directly comparable to previous figures presented on a household basis.
30 Social Security Experience (www.gov.scot)
31 Social Security (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 2025
32 Scottish House Condition Survey: 2023 Key Findings - gov.scot
33 Low Income Winter Heating Assistance (LIWHA): consultation - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
34 Winter Fuel Payments for “off-gas grid” households - House of Commons Library (parliament.uk)