The Winter Heating Assistance (Pension Age) (Scotland) Regulations 2024: scrutiny report
The Scottish Commission on Social Security's scrutiny report on the draft Winter Heating Assistance (Pension Age) (Scotland) Regulations 2024
Contents
4. Payments: amounts and payees
Rules governing the amount paid for Pension Age Winter Heating Payment (PAWHP) are set out in Part 4 of the draft Regulations, draft regulations 9, 10 and 11. These rules are complicated in terms of how much a given individual will receive, but working out a household’s total award is relatively straightforward. Generally, a household with individuals who are State Pension age but under 80 will receive £200, and households with one or more individuals over 80 will receive £300. Where the recipient lives in a care home or independent hospital, these amounts are either halved (where they do not get Pension Credit or another means-tested benefit is received) or reduced to £0 (if they do get Pension Credit).
The following table, created in part from tables set out in the Policy Note,1Policy Note (socialsecuritycommission.scot) summarises some examples of the amounts payable under different scenarios of household circumstances. Please note that this table is a simplification of complex rules and should not be used as an official reference source.
Table 1: Examples of payment amounts
| Household composition | Individual is State Pension age or older but under 80 during the qualifying week | Individual is 80 or over during the qualifying week |
|---|---|---|
| Individual qualifies and lives alone (or none of the people they live with qualifies) | £200 | £300 |
| Individual qualifies and lives with someone under 80 who also qualifies | £100 | £200 |
| Individual qualifies and lives with someone 80 or over who also qualifies | £100 | £150 |
| Individual qualifies and lives in a care home or independent hospital and does not receive a relevant benefit | £100 | £150 |
| Individual qualifies and receives a relevant benefit as an individual claim or the lead claimant on a joint claim | £200 | £300 |
| Individual lives with someone else, with whom they have a joint claim for a relevant benefit, where they are not the lead claimant | Nil –the lead claimant will get the payment | Nil – the lead claimant will get the payment |
| Individual lives in a care home or independent hospital and receives a relevant benefit | Nil | Nil |
| Individual qualifies and lives with someone 80 or over, with whom they have a joint claim for a relevant benefit, where they are the lead claimant for that benefit | £300 | £300 |
The table above highlights that the amounts payable involve both individual and household considerations. Calculating the correct amounts will rely on accurate data about living arrangements and benefit entitlement. We note that under the UK Winter Fuel Payment (WFP) there were errors relating to whether an eligible pensioner lived with another eligible person, leading to both overpayments and underpayments.3Social Fund Account 2022-2023 (www.gov.uk), p. 11.
To mitigate the risk of similar errors going unnoticed when PAWHP is live, clear and accessible communication would be key. Communications laying out eligibility and amounts payable to people across a range of circumstances would allow people to check for themselves and, where necessary, raise any discrepancies with Social Security Scotland.
Recommendation 7: The Scottish Government should ensure provision of suitable information materials to allow people to check whether they should have received an award of Pension Age Winter Heating Payment, but did not.
4.1 Opting out
In line with WFP, the Scottish Government will provide an option for people to opt out of receiving PAWHP if they feel they do not require the additional support. A person who has opted out must opt back in should they wish at a later date to begin receiving PAWHP; once a person has opted out there will be no mechanism that automatically opts them back in. SCoSS notes that the numbers opting out of the WFP to date have tended to be very small;4An estimated 186 recipients of WFP in 2021: see Only 186 pensioners opt out of Winter Fuel Payment in 2021 out of over 11m recipients (ifamagazine.com) there appear to be no data about numbers opting out in Scotland.
A majority of respondents to the Scottish Government’s consultation on PAWHP agreed with having an opt-out.5The Scottish Government Response to the Consultation on Pension Age Winter Heating Payment (PAWHP) (www.gov.scot), p. 12. Some respondents noted, however, that clear communication around this process was important to ensure people did not lose out because they had forgotten to opt back in. Suggestions to achieve this aim included a yearly reminder to people who had opted out, or to limit opting out to one year, requiring potential recipients to opt out each year they did not wish to receive the payment.
In their response to the consultation, the Scottish Government stated they would contact eligible people each year with a notification that they remained opted out and with information on how to opt back in should they wish to do so. There may be a question around efficiency and value for money (principle (h)) if significant numbers of people opt out and are sent reminder letters every year. Communications to individuals and stakeholder groups about the opt-out option, and processes involved, will be important.
Recommendation 8: The numbers opting out of receiving Pension Age Winter Heating Payment, and associated communications, processes and administration of opt-outs by Social Security Scotland, should be kept under review.