OAPs frozen out of city heating scheme

The Evening News can reveal that just 277 out of 3,311 inquiries in Edinburgh about the Energy Assistance Package (EAP) have resulted in a new central heating system.

Separate figures show that cash should be available for the scheme – only 24.8m

of the government's fuel poverty budget of 50.6m for this year had been spent by the end of February.

The lack of help for some of the city's most vulnerable people has emerged on the day forecasters warned of a return to the sort of winter conditions which gripped the nation earlier this year.

And Labour accused the SNP of making the heating scheme so bureaucratic that people who ought to be getting help were missing out.

Labour housing spokeswoman Mary Mulligan said: "These figures show that the SNP's heating programme isn't working. Nine out of ten people who ask for help from the new EAP don't receive new central heating.

"We have just had one of the coldest winters in decades. The minister must intervene urgently to find out why this scheme is not delivering for more families."

The previous Labour-Liberal Democrat Scottish Executive introduced a non-means tested scheme offering free central heating to pensioners in 2001. The SNP revamped the scheme, extending it to low-income families but also introduced a new means test.

Ms Mulligan said: "They have made it so bureaucratic that it's not benefiting the people it should.

"First you have to phone the Energy Savings Trust, who will go through lots of questions. First you are offered money advice, then insulation and if your house still isn't warm enough they will offer you central heating. But then it becomes British Gas's responsibility and they will ask the same questions and go through the same procedures."

David Griffiths, chief executive of ECAS – a city group supporting elderly and disabled people – said a simpler scheme was needed.

"Older people quickly lose heart if they have to battle with a complicated bureaucratic system, and this programme sounds like a classic complex system that does not work in the timescale available."

The current system has its supporters, however, with some arguing that the original scheme had been unsustainable, and that the changes had actually improved what was on offer to people.

Lindsay Scott, communications manager of Age Concern & Help the Aged, said: "The SNP cranked up the criteria because the scheme was not previously sustainable. Elderly people who are eligible do get the heating they are entitled to.

"Labour and Lib Dem knew that the scheme they originally set up was unsustainable and the stricter measures are a good thing."

And Housing Minister Alex Neil said many of those who did not receive central heating would have been given other help, such as insulation, draft-proofing, help to switch to cheaper tariffs and benefit entitlement advice.

Winter weather is expected to return to the Lothians with snowfall on higher ground this evening. The MET Office has warned residents across the area to be prepared for bad conditions.

A team of gritters were put on emergency alert today.