Calls have been made to radically review winter heating support after evidence emerged that the coldest North East households are losing out.
Before winter 2022, residents near Highland and Aberdeenshire weather stations could expect up to £175 in triggered support towards heating bills under the UK Cold Weather Payment scheme.
This was capped at £50 a year by the Scottish Government when the payment became devolved and was added to benefits like Universal Credit. More people across Scotland get the benefit — but it is not targeted and it can be significantly less than some would receive in the coldest areas.
In addition, weather station data used to assess local need is no longer monitored by the Scottish Government.
This was despite the Scottish Commission on Social Security warning the shift from a temperature-related payment to a flat rate “will increase exposure to poverty… for a small but significant group of people.”
Last year, House of Commons Library data detailed a 10-year period, in which North and North East households endured more cold weather than any other part of Scotland.
The CWP is worth £25 for each seven-day period of very cold weather as reported — or forecast — by the nearest weather station.
In 2020 this was worth £150 for those in the Aboyne weather station area, £175 for those near Braemar, and the same for those near Loch Glascarnoch between Ullapool and Inverness.
And now, independent analysis from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre suggests 1,000 Braemar residents would have got £100 less in 2022, 2,000 residents near Loch Glascarnoch received £125 less, 1,000 in Aviemore got £50 less, and 7,000 households in Aboyne got £25 less.
Aberdeenshire West MSP Alexander Burnett said he wants the Low Income Winter Heating Payment brought back before the equalities committee in the next parliament, to hammer out where it “isn’t working for rural Scotland.”
“There was no doubt a noble intention behind the devolved heating payment, which is provided as a benefit for people on lower incomes.
“But it has come at the expense of taking targeted support away from the coldest, literally freezing communities which can spend days and weeks in sub-zero conditions.
“The people behind the legislation were warned this was creating inequality and here is data to prove it.
“If you are living in a cold stone-built cottage when someone is also telling you that you’re not meant to be using a log burner, you’re off the main gas network and the price of heating oil is through the roof, this feels like an SNP government penalising people for living in Braemar and Aboyne.”
