Keep paying pensioners who need winter fuel funding most - Susan Dalgety

Scotland’s public finance minister says £100m will need to be found to keep winter fuel payments universal

There have been times when I have not needed to ‘borrow’ from my pot, others when I was right up to the limit. These days I hover, more or less, around solvency, thanks in no small part to my state pension.

And for the last two Christmases I have received an added bonus of £500 – the winter heating allowance that the state has given pensioners every December since 1997, when it was introduced by the then chancellor Gordon Brown.

The allowance is usually between £100 and £300 per head, but in 2022, the Conservative government increased it to £500 to help older people cope with the cost of living crisis.

I will have to put my hand up and admit that I spent my cash on Christmas gifts for my grandchildren as well as friends in Malawi. And I was not alone.

I know many people who donated their annual payment to charity. Some were even embarrassed to receive it, knowing full well that they did not need it.

But, and this is a big but, for many millions of pensioners living on the basic state pension, the winter fuel payment makes a big difference to their household finances.

I don’t doubt that this winter there will be some people left with a choice of switching on their heating or eating.

I am sure, therefore, that the new Labour chancellor, Rachel Reeves had sleepless nights before announcing an end to the payment for the millions who do not receive pensioner credit.

The Tories left a £22 billion hole in the nation’s finances, and it was inevitable that she would have to make some difficult decisions to balance the books.

However, her announcement was for England and Wales only. It is now up to the Scottish government to decide whether or not they will continue to make the payment.

Plans were already underway to transfer responsibility for the scheme to the Scottish government next month, which has re-branded it as the Pension Age Winter Heating Payment.

Ian McKee, the man in charge of Scotland’s public finances, told the BBC last week that while the SNP government would “very much like” to give the bonus to everyone, ministers had to “look at the numbers”.

He estimates the Scottish Government will have to find £100 million a year on top of the £80 million he expects to receive from Westminster for the allowance.

The SNP government loves universal benefits, such as free tuition fees for university students, free prescriptions and the often-derided baby box full of free stuff.

But just as my overdraft was never free money, none of this stuff is free, including the winter fuel allowance.

It was families struggling on the living wage who paid for my bonus through their income tax.

So this year, while I may grumble a little when I dip into my overdraft to pay for Christmas, I hope the SNP government will follow Rachel Reeves’s lead and restrict the payment to those who need it most.