by BILL HEANEY
Hundreds of thousands of the poorest Scots would get extra support for energy bills this winter under plans published today by Scottish Labour.
The party is calling for the SNP government to pass on UK Labour’s £100 Household energy payment to bands A-D, benefiting 1.88 million households across Scotland.
* Work with councils to guarantee everyone on Council Tax Reduction in higher bands gets the payments, supporting a further 23,000 households
* Boost the Winter Heating Payment from £62 to £100, benefiting 487,000 households
* Ensure maximum take up of the £150 Warm Home Discount.
The plan would be paid by excess funding from the Barnett consequential arising from the UK Budget’s decision to ask the biggest banks to pay their fair share.
Scottish Labour leader Michael Marra said: “It’s right that the biggest banks are paying their fair share to help support people with energy bill payments this winter. That’s Labour values in action.
“The UK Labour budget delivers hundreds of millions of extra funding for cost-of-living support Scots. It’s welcome that the SNP government have already committed to passing on the £100 payment to people in council tax bands A to D.
“But we can go further – for the poorest households the Scottish Government should guarantee more support.
“We can do that through a mix of identifying households on Council Tax Reduction and increasing the Winter Heating Payment, combining with the Warm Homes Discount that is £350 worth of support for the poorest households.
“That’s what the Scottish budget should do and the SNP should work to guarantee that support, not use any excess funding to plug holes in their budget.”
The UK budget delivers £208 million in Barnett consequentials linked to the Household Energy Payment and generated by increasing taxes on the biggest banks.
£188,355,500 is covered by passing on the £100 payment to bands A-D.
There are 23,300 households in bands E-H om Council Tax Reduction. Passing on the £100 payment would cost an additional £2.3 million
Increasing the Winter Heating Payment to 487,000 households to £100 would cost £18.5 million Increasing the Winter Heating Payment from £62 to £100 would cost £18.5m to cover all 487,000 households, covered by the excess from the Barnett consequentials.
The £150 Warm Homes Discount goes automatically to 345,000 homes, with around 150,000 further households eligible to apply.
The poorest households could then be eligible to receive £350 across all three forms of support.