Social security experience panels: cold spell and winter fuel payment - visual summary

Next Steps

We will have a formal consultation on how Winter Heating Assistance and Cold Spell Heating Assistance will be delivered. This will build on feedback from this survey. It will also look at feedback from people who took part in the consultation on the Social Security Bill in 2016, and from stakeholders.

Most people were broadly supportive of the current eligibility criteria for both benefits.  The consultation will therefore look at mirroring these for the new benefits in Scotland as well as where things could be improved. 

The findings of this report will also influence the design and delivery of Cold Spell Heating Assistance and Winter Heating Assistance. The current difficulties and frustrations will be taken into consideration and used to identify where improvements in the delivery and design can be made. 

The positive aspects highlighted of the current benefits will also be captured and used to support the development of the design and delivery of the new benefits.