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SCOTTISH Labour has warned that the winter fuel payment is set to fall in value, despite almost half of pensioner households north of the border living in fuel poverty.
Research carried out by the party and independently verified found that the allowance is set to lose 10 per cent of its value over the next five years.
The winter fuel payment has remained at a standard rate of £200 since 2007, meaning that inflation has not been taken into account.
With 45 per cent of pensioner households living in fuel poverty, Labour said the SNP and Tory governments must do more to help older people heat their homes.
Recent figures estimate that pensioners make up 43 per cent of Scotland’s 750,000 fuel-poor households.
Scottish Labour deputy leader Alex Rowley said: “The SNP needs to have a plan to tackle fuel poverty.”
Mr Rowley said it was “disgraceful” that hundreds of thousands of people are living in “cold and damp housing.”
The SNP missed its target of abolishing fuel poverty by last month and will now have to set a new target thanks to a Labour intervention in the Scottish Parliament.
