The Scottish Pension Age Winter Heating Payment amount

AssemblyGMX

This is my very first post in my new MSE account.  I used Google for information and it said that the amount for anyone of State Pension age in Scotland to age 79 should receive £203.40 paid into the account where they receive their State Pension with no need to apply for it. Does this amount sound right?

I am asking because some sites say, in my circumstances, the amount was to be £200 and what could the extra £3.40 be for?

Dazed_and_C0nfused

AssemblyGMX said:

This is my very first post in my new MSE account.  I used Google for information and it said that the amount for anyone of State Pension age in Scotland to age 79 should receive £203.40 paid into the account where they receive their State Pension with no need to apply for it. Does this amount sound right?

I am asking because some sites say, in my circumstances, the amount was to be £200 and what could the extra £3.40 be for?

Where have you seen that Social Security Scotland would pay £200 in Winter 2025?

Can you provide a link?

TheMilkmansDad

first hit on Google:

All pensioners in Scotland with an income of less than £35,000 will receive Pension Age Winter Heating Payments this winter of either £203.40 or £305.10 per household,

Didn't deep dive but might be worth looking here Pension Age Winter Heating Payment - mygov.scot

QrizB

Here's a very similar link that cuts to the chase:

https://www.gov.scot/news/pension-age-winter-heating-payments/

All pensioners in Scotland with an income of less than £35,000 will receive Pension Age Winter Heating Payments this winter of either £203.40 or £305.10 per household, Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville has confirmed. This means pensioners in Scotland will be better off compared to those in the rest of the UK.  
Pensioner households with no-one aged 80 or over will receive £203.40, rising to £305.10 for households with someone aged 80 or over.

AssemblyGMX

It did not say Social Security Scotland.  I wrote down the amounts.   It included a lot of  information about other Winter Fuel benefits including  £200 and The Scottish one £203.40

Dazed_and_C0nfused

QrizB said:

Here's a very similar link that cuts to the chase:

https://www.gov.scot/news/pension-age-winter-heating-payments/

All pensioners in Scotland with an income of less than £35,000 will receive Pension Age Winter Heating Payments this winter of either £203.40 or £305.10 per household, Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville has confirmed. This means pensioners in Scotland will be better off compared to those in the rest of the UK.  
Pensioner households with no-one aged 80 or over will receive £203.40, rising to £305.10 for households with someone aged 80 or over.

I'm not entirely convinced that is really correct.

Isn't it all pensioners will get it unless they proactively opt out.  Then if their income is more than £35,000 it will be clawed back via the tax system 🤔

Scot_39

The Scottish tax system is operated by HMRC but using Scottish govt rates and thresholds if resident in Scotland - so I suspect it will work the same as rest of UK clawback.

The former of opt out via thd Scottish benefits system (Social Security Scotland) of course likely different



https://www.mygov.scot/pension-age-winter-heating-payment/opt-out-of-the-payment

Spoonie_Turtle

AssemblyGMX said:

It did not say Social Security Scotland.  I wrote down the amounts.   It included a lot of  information about other Winter Fuel benefits including  £200 and The Scottish one £203.40

Did you look at Google search results or was this an AI overview?  The AI overviews pull from all sorts of sources including irrelevant ones and inaccurate ones and are a language model designed to sound good, not an actual search engine designed to return an accurate result. 
So if this was an AI overview 'result', to get the actual answers you still need to look at the list of search results for reliable and relevant results, like we always used to

AssemblyGMX

I'm not sure but it was the first one on top of the list and it might have been an AI one - It did include quite a lot of  information about other Winter Fuel benefits including  £200 and The Scottish one £203.40.  

I don't remember seeing a Specifically Scottish site and I wondered what the extra £3.40 Scottish one could be for. 

Scot_39

When the payment was cancelled - I suspect the Scottish system kicked in - details here

https://www.mygov.scot/pension-age-winter-heating-payment

And if you go the third line in the menu

https://www.mygov.scot/pension-age-winter-heating-payment/how-much-you-might-be-paid

The £1.70 £3.40 etc I suppose is some minimal indexing on the previous year (the sort of one upmanship the SNP like to pull over English rates on many things - good or bad).  Actually come to think of it that would be 1.7% - which I think was the CPI rate low in Sep 2024 - before it started to build - and really took off poast budget kicking in - to current c3.8%

And re any clwback if you dont opt out and they need to - the Scottish mygov site links to the HMRC site - the first question being country.

https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/guidance/check-if-hmrc-will-take-back-your-winter-payment/start/country?c=1

Eldi_Dos

Think people who are relying on AI for information may also be getting confused with the similar sounding winter heating payment, which is paid to some people on certain benefits including some pensioners. And to add to the jollity is not taxed.