John Swinney said his government will work very closely with citizens to "maximise eligibility for the winter fuel payment" in the wake of its scrapping by the UK Government. Sir Keir Starmer defended the decision, saying it was needed to repair a £22bn "hole" in the public finances. The Scottish Government said they had no choice but to follow suit. "We didn't want to take this decision - this decision was taken for us by the UK Government who abrutply, with very little notice, decided to end the provision for winter fuel payments," Mr Swinney said.
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00:00We've got to work very closely with our citizens to make sure that everyone who's eligible for pension credit is able to access pension credit,
00:08which will then enable them to access the winter fuel heating payment.
00:12We didn't want to take this decision. This decision was taken for us by the United Kingdom Government,
00:17who abruptly, with very little notice, decided to end the provision of winter fuel payments.
00:23The consequence of that for Scotland is a cut in our budget of £160 million,
00:28and we just don't have the money to replace those resources that are a consequence of the cut by the UK Government.
00:35So we'll work constructively with people in Scotland to make sure we can maximise eligibility for the winter fuel payment,
00:43but I would much prefer to be in a situation where we were able to maintain the payments as they are,
00:48but we can't do that because of UK Government decisions.