Pension Age Winter Heating Payment (PAWHP): draft regulations 2024

Part 3 - Eligibility rules for Pension Age Winter Heating Payment

Eligibility rules

6. An individual is entitled to be paid Pension Age Winter Heating Payment in respect of a qualifying week if the individual meets the age condition in regulation 7 and the residence and presence conditions in regulation 8.

Age restriction

7. An individual has reached pensionable age before or on a day in the qualifying week.

Residence and presence conditions

8.—(1) In respect of any day within the qualifying week—

(a) the individual is ordinarily resident in Scotland, or

(b) the individual—

(i) is habitually resident in one of the countries listed in the schedule,

(ii) is an individual to whom the rules set out in a relevant EU regulation apply by virtue of—

(aa) Title III of Part 2 of the EU withdrawal agreement,

(bb) Part 3 or Article 23(4) of the Swiss citizens’ rights agreement (as defined in section 39(1) of the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020 (“the 2020 Act”),

(cc) Title III of the EEA EFTA separation agreement (as defined in section 39(1) of the 2020 Act), or

(dd) the agreement constituted by the exchange of letters set out in the schedule of the Social Security (Gibraltar) Order 2024(^[a]),

(iii) in respect of whom the United Kingdom is, as a result, competent for payment of sickness benefits in cash, and

(iv) has a genuine and sufficient link to Scotland.

(2) The reference in paragraph (1)(b)(iv) to an individual’s link to Scotland being sufficient is to it being sufficiently close that if the individual were not entitled to Pension Age Winter Heating Payment, paragraph (1)(b) would be incompatible with the applicable agreement mentioned in sub-paragraph (b)(ii) of that paragraph.

(3) An individual to whom a relevant EU Regulation applies is not entitled to Pension Age Winter Heating Payment for a period unless during that period the United Kingdom is competent for payment of sickness benefits in cash to the individual for the purposes of the relevant EU Regulation in question.