Winter Heating Assistance (Pension Age) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2025: Policy Note

Financial Effects

A Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment (BRIA) has been published. The Scottish Government does not believe that PAWHP will have an adverse impact on the competitiveness of Scottish companies or the third sector within Scotland, the UK, or elsewhere in Europe or the rest of the world.

The right to appeal to a First-tier Tribunal is provided for in the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018. Civil legal aid will continue to be available to individuals to appeal an entitlement decision to the Upper Tribunal, Court of Session or Supreme Court. Whilst the change in policy may lead to more people appealing, the Scottish Government does not anticipate significant numbers which would have any adverse impact to the Legal Aid budget as a result of the introduction of PAWHP. Current recipients of WFP are already able to access legal aid to appeal entitlement decisions.

The Scottish Fiscal Commission (SFC) has a statutory duty to provide independent and official forecasts of Scottish GDP, devolved tax revenues, and devolved social security spending. Under the Scottish Fiscal Commission Act 2016, the SFC may also produce forecasts on other ‘fiscal factors’, defined as “anything which the Scottish Ministers use to ascertain the amount of resources likely to be available for the purposes of sections 1 to 3 of the Public Finance and Accountability (Scotland) Act 2000”. The Protocol for engagement between the Scottish Fiscal Commission and the Scottish Government notes that the SFC may produce forecasts where it considers the policy, or policies, to have a “non-negligible impact on receipts or expenditure”.

Following the changes to Pension Age Winter Heating Payment (PAWHP) in Scotland announced on 18 June 2025, the SFC produced, as part of its Scotland Economic and Fiscal Forecasts Update June 2025, an illustrative estimate, in which the PAWHP spending was presented as the spending minus the payments recovered.

After reviewing The Winter Heating Assistance (Pension Age) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2025, the SFC concluded that an updated policy costing is appropriate to inform the legislation. The SFC’s Fiscal Update 2025, published on 26 August 2025, includes a forecast for PAWHP which reflects the Scottish Government’s intent to deliver the payment under the new eligibility rules and payment amounts from winter 2025-26. It presents forecasts of spending and the amount from payment recovery.

Scottish Government

Social Security Directorate

August 2025