Scottish Government welcomes winter fuel payment U-turn but warns many pensioners could miss out

Holyrood has welcomed Westminster’s winter fuel payment U-turn, but warned that many pensioners could still miss out.

UK chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed on Monday that the UK Labour Government was planning a partial U-turn on the highly unpopular decision to cut winter fuel payments for nine million pensioners last year.

A Scottish Government minister welcomed the changes, but slammed Reeves’ decision to cut the winter fuel payment as a “betrayal of millions of pensioners”.

“I welcome any extension of eligibility by the UK Government, but this is a U-turn the chancellor should have made a long time ago,” Scotland’s social justice secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said.

“But there is still no detail about how the chancellor intends to go about that. Unfortunately, it still sounds as if many pensioners will miss out.”

Reeves insisted she had “listened to people’s concerns” as she announced changes to the threshold for winter fuel payments.

“It will be still means-tested, but at a higher level, we’ve listened to people’s concerns around the level of the means test,” she said.

“Because of changes we’ve made and the stability we’ve brought back to the economy, we are able to increase that amount.”

Reeves assured the country that more pensioners will receive winter fuel payments from this winter as part of the Labour Government’s £1.25bn U-turn.

All pensioners in England and Wales with an income of or below £35,000 per year will benefit from the revised inter fuel payment – equivalent to around nine million people.

The changes will impact the amount of money that comes to Scotland for similar, devolved benefits.

Following the announcement, the SNP have warned that the chancellor also “must now abandon her devastating austerity cuts to disabled people – and scrap the two child benefit cap” – following her U-turn on the winter fuel payment.

SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn MP said: “This screeching U-turn was inevitable and lessons must be learnt from the damaging mess the Labour government caused by robbing pensioners of their winter fuel payments.

“It must be swiftly followed by an end to all Labour Party austerity cuts – scrapping the planned cuts to disability benefits and abolishing punitive welfare policies, including the Labour government’s two child benefit cap and bedroom tax.

“At the spending review on Wednesday, the Labour government must end its austerity cuts for good – and not impose even more cuts to families and public services.”

Somerville also claimed that the Scottish Government had “once again not been consulted” on Reeves’ latest policy changes and the implications in Scotland.

She urged the UK Government to ensure the Scottish Government is “fully appraised of the proposed changes as soon as possible” so MSPs can understand “any implications for our own programmes and, crucially, our budget”.

Scottish Greens social security spokesperson Maggie Chapman added: “The reinstatement of the winter fuel payment for some is a welcome move, but we must go further, the Labour government must end the two-child benefit cap, which hits working-class families the hardest, and they must reverse their cruel austerity policies.

“If Keir Starmer has any shame, he would finally call an end to [Reeves’] disastrous time as chancellor.”

Liberal Democrat MP Christine Jardine said the “entire mess has caused so much needless pain for hundreds of thousands of Scottish pensioners”.

She added that her party will be looking “very closely” at what the announcement could mean for the equivalent Scottish benefit.

“In the meantime, the Chancellor must apologise to all those pensioners who had to freeze last winter,” Jardine said.

No apology for ‘unnecessary anxiety and hardship’

The chancellor cut the universal winter fuel payment funding shortly after taking office in 2024.

More than nine million pensioners lost out on payments worth up to £300 after Reeves restricted eligibility for the pension top-up last year.

The decision forced the Scottish Government to follow suit until it allocated alternative funding and announced the benefits would return in winter 2025.

On Monday, the chancellor refused to apologise for causing “unnecessary anxiety and hardship” to pensioners over her cuts.

“The irresponsible thing to have done last year was to allow the public finances to carry on on an unsustainable footing,” Reeves told ITV News.

“That would have resulted in interest rates going up, costing families and pensioners more in mortgages and rents.”

She added: “I’m always going to put stability in our economy first.”

The Prime Minister’s press secretary said the UK Labour Government was confirming the changes now to “give people certainty and ensure the payments can be received in time for winter”.

“No pensioner will need to take any action as they will automatically receive the payment this winter,” she said on Monday.

Reeves added: “We will set out in the normal way, in the budget, how everything is funded, but no one should be in any doubt about my commitment to the fiscal rules to ensure that the sums always add up.”