DWP 'limits' free winter payment and 770,000 people will now miss out

Pensioners living in Scotland have been issued a key update over Winter Fuel Payments. The Department for Work and Pensions ( DWP ) has confirmed that letters have been sent to elderly people north of the border following a shake-up from the Labour Party.

The SNP made winter fuel payments means-tested after Chancellor Rachel Reeves' announcement for England and Wales. Minister for pensions, Emma Reynolds, said that letters to OAPs were sent on October 7 and November 4.

Ms Reynolds responded to Liberal Democrat MP Daisy Cooper, who queried: "To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, on what date her Department sent letters to people eligible for Pension Credit to inform them that they must apply for Pension Credit to continue receiving winter fuel payments."

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The Labour politician replied: "The department sent letters between 7th October and 4th November 2024 to pensioners who, under previous rules, would have received a Winter Fuel Payment this year. The letters informed customers of the change in eligibility for receiving the payment and urged them to check their potential entitlement to Pension Credit which would provide them with a range of additional benefits, including the Winter Fuel Payment."

Just 130,000 in Scotland will be eligible for the payments under the new rules, while 900,000 who had previously been entitled will miss out. After the vote, SNP MSP Clare Haughey said: "Today Anas Sarwar made his choice - it is more important for him to lie down for Sir Keir Starmer than stand up for vulnerable pensioners in Scotland.”

Meanwhile the first minister said the Scottish government had been “forced” to cut universal entitlement for winter fuel payments because the Labour government’s decision meant Holyrood would lose out on about £150m in Treasury funding.

He said that money would have provided about 80% of the funding for a new a Holyrood-managed equivalent - the pension age winter heating payment (PAWHP) - which was scheduled to be introduced last month.