Devastating winter fuel payment cut means almost 59,000 Highland pensioners will lose out as just 6772 now qualify
The 19,001 pensioners across the Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire will be among 58,817 in the north of Scotland to lose the winter fuel payment this year – a drop of 88 per cent.
Numbers from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) reveal the scale of the problem for many – In the Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire seat of 21,123 pensioners just 2,122 now qualify while 19,001 lose out.
In Caithness Sutherland and Easter Ross all 20,320 pensioners will lose the winter fuel payment, just 2,616 on pension credit now qualify. And Finally in Moray West, Nairn and Strathspey 19,496 people will lose the benefit and just 2,034 will get it.
At the end of July Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced only those on pension credit would receive the payment, the Scottish Government followed suit saying it had no other choice amid an estimated loss of £160 million.
Politicians from across the political divide have been almost unanimous in warning that the loss of the Pension Age Winter Heating Payment in the north will be felt more deeply because fuel poverty rates are already higher than the rest of the UK.
That is caused by the generally colder, wetter and windier weather in the Highlands – which is supported by Met Office research.
While the cost of living is still being felt by many who pay a premium for basic services like fuelling their cars – or heating their homes.
One report to the Scottish Affairs Committee by Dr Tim Allison, Director of Public Health, NHS Highland and Dr Hugo van Woerden, Visiting Professor, University of the Highlands and Islands provided evidence for the extra costs.
One of the main findings is that “to achieve a reasonable living standard in remote rural” area it typically costs 10-40 per cent more than elsewhere in the UK.
It added that fuel poverty in these areas are around 43 per cent of households while the Highland has the “fourth highest bill for electricity and gas” in Scotland.
Deputy First Minister and Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch MSP Kate Forbes said: “Not only does it drive a coach and horses through the devolution settlement, it ignores the disproportionate importance of this payment to households in Scotland, who face harsher winters and higher fuel costs,” she said.
“We and many others called for the UK Government to rethink this approach – or at least allow more time for a proper consultation – but they have not changed course.”
She added the government is “already facing the most challenging financial circumstances in the history of the Scottish Parliament” it has had “no choice but to bear the brunt of Labour’s cut to the Winter Fuel Payment”.
Highlands and Islands Conservative MSP Jamie Halcro Johnston strongly disagree, saying: “Thousands of pensioners across the Highlands and Islands, where fuel poverty is already higher, will lose out because of Labour’s decision to cut funding for these payments.
“This is a cruel decision that will hurt thousands of elderly people across Scotland, especially in those areas where the cost of heating homes is already disproportionately high.
“However, responsibility for winter fuel payments has recently been devolved to the Scottish Government and so the SNP could still have delivered this support to vulnerable pensioners this winter if they had wanted to.
“Instead, SNP ministers have chosen to follow Labour’s lead and turn their backs on those struggling to heat their homes. Both Labour and the SNP have failed to show the leadership needed to protect those most at risk.”
