Pensioners in the Highlands will pay the price as winter fuel payments are scrapped
Pensioners in the Highlands will pay the price as winter fuel payments are to be scrapped.
This is the view of Simon Francis, coordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition.
The Scottish Government has taken the decision to follow the UK government in no longer providing winter fuel payments to all pensioners.
The UK benefit is due to be replaced by a Holyrood-run alternative - but ministers have confirmed it will be means tested, while the roll out has been delayed.
Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said she had "no choice" after the chancellor announced cuts south of the border.
It came as Scotland’s finance secretary ordered ministers to “constrain all but essential" spending to help pay for public sector pay deals.
Highland residents are generally paying more for fuel than in other parts of the UK. A previous report showed that Caithness and Sutherland are paying 25 per cent more for their fuel bills than the rest of Scotland.
Data shows that there were 50,747 recipients of the Winter Fuel Payment in the Highland Council area in winter 2022/2023
33 per cent of Highland residents were experiencing fuel poverty at the end of 2023.
Simon Francis, coordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, said: "This is a decision made in Westminster by the Chancellor, but it is pensioners in the Highlands and across the rest of the UK that will pay the price.
"We have publicly commended the new UK Government in taking some of the long-term measures to tackle high energy bills, such as the drive for more renewable energy. But these solutions will take time to bring down bills.
“In the meantime, households of all ages will need more support to stay warm this winter, not less.
“We urge the Chancellor to broaden the targeting of the Winter Fuel Payment which would enable a more generous scheme to be introduced by Scottish ministers. The UK Government also needs to act to introduce support to end energy debt and reform Britain's broken energy system.
"The Highlands has one of the highest rates of fuel poverty and unless we see urgent action to keep people warm this winter, one of the first actions of the new UK Government will be to condemn more vulnerable Scottish households to cold damp homes this winter."
Caithness, Sutherland & Ross MSP, Maree Todd, is urging her constituents to check their eligibility for pension credits.
Commenting, Maree Todd MSP said: “The decision by the Labour UK government to means test the Winter Fuel Payment ensures that pensioners in Highland will face the brunt of Westminster economic chaos.
“This decision, made in Westminster, has resulted in the Scottish Government’s budget being cut by an estimated £160m.
“When the same measure was considered by the Tories last year, the Labour Party strongly opposed it saying, “pensioners mustn’t be forced to bear the brunt of Tory economic failure” – yet now they are the ones imposing it on people in Scotland.”
Maree Todd MSP adds: “My constituency of Caithness, Sutherland & Ross already faces some of the highest levels of fuel poverty in the country.
“The Labour UK Government's shameful decision to reduce support will only exacerbate fuel poverty rates and push vulnerable households in my constituency and across the Highlands further into hardship during the harsh winter months.
“I am strongly encouraging pensioners to check if they are eligible for pension credit to ensure that if they are they will still receive the Pension Age Winter Heating Payment that they are entitled to.”
Age Scotland has echoed the same call by urging the UK government to reconsider plans to scrap the winter fuel payment for pensioners who do not receive pension credit.
Age Scotland’s policy director, Adam Stachura, said: “At minimum, a quarter of a million pensioners in Scotland on the lowest incomes or living in fuel poverty will no longer receive this vital financial support over the winter months, while hundreds of thousands more on modest incomes are going to struggle with their energy bills even more than normal as a result.
“This brutal decision by the UK Government was made too fast, cuts too deep and its impact will be severe. It’s important that they rethink this move, as it has a huge impact on the devolution of social security and the needs of Scottish pensioners who live in some of the coldest homes in the UK.”
