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Help for fuel poor
27/02/2009
Low income families across Scotland are to benefit from a new energy efficiency scheme that aims to help the fuel poor.
The Energy Assistance Package will be backed by Scottish Government funding worth around £60 million per annum - 30 per cent more than the original fuel poverty budget.
From April 6, 2009, the scheme will target pensioners and low income families with children aged under five, or children with a disability aged below 16.
It will include benefit and tax credit and tariff checks to ensure people are receiving the right income and are paying the correct bill, as well as providing central heating and insulation.
The new scheme will be partly delivered by energy companies under their Carbon Emissions Reduction Target programmes, which will help ensure Scotland gets its fair share of CERT activity, estimated to be worth around 100 million pounds a year.
Housing and Communities Minister Alex Neil said:
"One quarter of Scottish households are now classed as fuel poor. In a modern Scotland that sobering statistic casts a shadow over the whole country.
"The Scottish Fuel Poverty Forum reported last year and the Scottish Government moved quickly to act on its main recommendation, the creation of an Energy Assistance Package.
"The most vulnerable members of society will be targeted - pensioners and for the first time, low income families. I want to see incomes boosted, fuel bills reduced and energy efficiency improved in homes.
"All this is underpinned by a record 60 million pounds from the Scottish Government, and will lever in additional CERT funding from the energy companies worth up to 100 million pounds.
"The rest of the UK is playing follow the leader as we prepare to introduce the Energy Assistance Package, which will help meet fuel poverty and our wider poverty, climate change and energy objectives."
Fuel poverty is defined as when households spend more than 10 per cent of their income in household fuel.
Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing Nicola Sturgeon announced on November 19, 2008 that she would implement the key recommendation of the Scottish Fuel Poverty Forum.
From April 2009 the Energy Assistance Package will replace the Central Heating and Warm Deal programmes. A network of Energy Saving Advice Centres throughout Scotland will help deliver the scheme.
Ms Sturgeon confirmed that the EAP would be supported by funding worth £55.8 million per annum. However, in the recent Budget the funding was increased by a further £5 million to just over £60 million - 30 per cent more than the original fuel poverty budget.
The Energy Assistance Package targets the following groups in private sector homes:
- All pensioner households who have never had central heating installed.
- Pensioners in energy inefficient homes who are in receipt of a qualifying benefit or are aged 75 or over
- Families in energy inefficient homes who are in receipt of a qualifying benefit and with a pregnant woman, child under 5 or a disabled child under 16
- Qualifying benefits are those related to either low income or disability. These include income support, maximum child tax credit and the guarantee element of pension credit, disability living allowance and attendance allowance
The Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) is an obligation on energy companies to reduce carbon through providing households with subsidised energy efficiency measures, such as cavity wall and loft insulation, energy efficient appliances and low energy light bulbs.