NO pensioner in Scotland will receive less in their Winter Fuel Payment than they would south of the Border, John Swinney has said.
Soon after coming to power, Labour cut back the universal Winter Fuel Payment in a deeply unpopular move on which Chancellor Rachel Reeves U-turned last week, saying that every pensioner household with an income under £35,000 would receive a payment.
The UK Government said that all people born before 22 September 1959 would receive £200, and £300 if they are in a household with someone over 80.
In Glasgow on Monday, Swinney told media that "no pensioner will receive less than they would under the new UK scheme".
In Scotland, the Winter Fuel Payment brought in to mitigate Labour's cuts was guaranteed at £100 per household.
People on pension credit and under 80 would get £203, and people on pension credit and over 80 would get £305, Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said last week.
Speaking to media on Monday, Swinney said the Scottish Government will set out more details on how the UK and Scottish payments would be matched up in “due course”.
In a speech setting out the Scottish Government's plans for public services, the First Minister said: "When the UK Labour Government decided to take the payment off millions of pensioners, I was appalled, most people were.
"I was appalled at the immorality, but I was also upon the financial short sightedness that it represented.
"The Winter Fuel Payment kept some of the most vulnerable in society warm in winter.
Swinney added that he didn't think cutting the Winter Fuel Payment was "ever going to save a penny".
"Because making millions of pensioners poorer makes them also colder and makes them also sicker, and that in turn, puts up the bill for our social services and our NHS.
"It is a textbook definition of a false economy keeping the Winter Fuel Payment looks after our pensioners, but it also looks after our NHS.
"That is the sharp financial reality of the prevention principle in action. It's one of the reasons we were so quick to step in to protect pensioners in Scotland as best as we could from that wrong decision by the UK Government."
He added that now the UK Government had "seen the error of their ways" the Scottish Government will "always seek to do what is best for Scotland's pensioners".
“I’m very happy to confirm today that no pensioner in Scotland will receive less than they would under the new UK scheme,” he said.
“Details will be set out in due course by my Government, but the Scottish Government will always seek to do what is best for Scotland’s pensioners.”
After the UK Government cut, the Scottish Government said they had lost out on £140-160 million in expected Barnett consequentials.
The changes announced last week will provide more funding for the Scottish Government, which the First Minister later told journalists is expected to be around £120 million.
Speaking to journalists after his speech, it was put to Swinney that the power over the payment was devolved to Social Security Scotland in time for it to be paid out last winter.
When asked if he regretted not offering it to older Scots, the First Minister said: “I might have had the power, but I didn’t have the money and I can’t spend money I don’t have.
“If the UK Government cuts a budget, I can’t spend it, and what we’ve done is we’ve taken a series of hard decisions to allow us, before the Labour Government came anywhere near doing a U-turn on this, to restore winter fuel payments to pensioners because of other hard decisions that I’ve made.
“So the SNP has kept faith with pensioners in Scotland when the Labour Party has deserted them.”
Adam Stachura, of Age Scotland, welcomed the announcement and said it will "reassure pensioners".
"There has been considerable concern from many older people over the last week that they would receive less winter support than people in England and Wales, so this sensible move from the Scottish Government certainly allays that anxiety," he said. "We've been really concerned that for hundreds of thousands of Scottish pensioners on low and modest incomes, living in fuel poverty and not claiming or entitled to Pension Credit that the £100 Pension Age Winter Heating Payment just wouldn't be enough. It is good news that the Scottish Government have now also recognised that. "We've asked the First Minster to commit to using every penny of the new funding to boost the energy support payment for pensioners in Scotland, rather than covering what they have already budgeted for.
"The money is now there to not only match what pensioners in England and Wales but offer even more to those on the lowest incomes and help drive down the astronomically high levels of fuel poverty and financial insecurity faced by pensioners in Scotland."
The First Minister was giving a speech at the Imaging Centre of Excellent (ICE) at Glasgow Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow.
He told attendees that public services required officials to "ramp up our use of technology" and there would be a "complete digital refit of our public realm".
Swinney said technology, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), would be used to bring Scotland's public services into the 21st century, but that there will be also be a renewed focus on prevention.
