A payment of £200 to help those on benefits in Wales to keep warm during the colder months will be scrapped next year. The Welsh Government confirmed the chance in its draft spending plans, which were published on Tuesday.
The winter fuel support scheme is costing £90m this year but will come to an end in 2023. The scheme was first announced in December 2021 and offered eligible claimants £100 towards their bills during the winter. In February of this year however, it was announced that the scheme payment would rise from £100 to £200 following concerns over the impact of soaring costs on households.
In September, the fuel support scheme was launched, meaning 400,000 households were able to get the payment to help keep their homes warm this winter, with the one-off payments available through the councils. Both Westminster and the Welsh Government have been offering a number of cost of living support payments to low-income households to help with the crisis.
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But ministers in Cardiff Bay said the fuel support scheme was only intended to run for two years and would not be extended to 2023/24, citing financial pressures in the budget. However, almost £19m additional funding has been added to the discretionary assistance fund, which provides help for people who find themselves in financial hardship.
Almost £20m has gone to 173,650 people so far this year from the DAF, with an extra £18.8m set to be paid for next year. The Welsh Government said it faced calls to make the "vital lifeline" even bigger, but that their "funding settlement does not meet all the budgetary and inflationary pressures we face".
Opposing parties have said that the Welsh Government could have used its income tax varying powers to top-up funding, but Rebecca Evans, the Finance Minister, left income tax rates unchanged in the government's budget.
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