First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has been urged to give £400 to the families hardest hit by the cost of living crisis.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar called on her to back his party’s targeted plan at Holyrood today.
She also faced demands to rethink water and rail fare rises.
SNP Finance Secretary Kate Forbes will, in a Budget statement today, announce how the Scottish Government will spend £290m to help people amid soaring energy prices.
Under the Labour plan, all of those in receipt of a council tax reduction, pension credit, child’s winter heating assistance or the carer’s allowance supplement would receive the £400 payment.
Labour have costed the proposal at £238 million.
They have also called for a windfall tax on the profits of oil and gas companies, a review of rail fares and water charges, and extra cash for the Scottish Welfare Fund.
At First Minister’s Questions, Sarwar asked the FM if she would back the plans for £400 payments.
She said: “The Finance Secretary will set out additional plans this afternoon. Of course we will look carefully at any proposals that come from Labour or anybody else, but like most of Labour's proposals, they lack any indication of how the plan should actually be paid for. The Scottish Government's actually got to fund the things that we do.”
Sarwar countered by saying the First Minister’s answers were just not “good enough” and asked if she would reverse the plans for rail and water rises.
She said: “Both rail fares and water charges on average are lower in Scotland than they are elsewhere in the UK.”
To sign up to the Daily Record Politics newsletter, click here.
