The most vulnerable households in Scotland will receive £1,000 of extra government support to tackle rising energy bills and the cost of living criss, Rishi Sunak has claimed.
The Tory chancellor said a new one-off £650 cost of living payment to low income households and a more widely targeted £400 discount grant on energy bills will build a cushion of support for the least well off.
Pensioners too will benefit from an extra winter fuel payment of £300 while disabled benefit claimants will will receive one off payment of £150.
They will also be eligible for the £400 October discount on energy bills for all households across the UK.
Sunak said: “I know that people in Scotland are anxious about keeping up with rising energy bills, which is why today we have introduced measures which will take the support for millions of the lowest income households over £1,000."
He added: "As a nation we have a responsibility to help the most vulnerable, which is why this support is mostly targeted at people on low incomes, pensioners and disabled people.
"But we understand that all households in Scotland will be concerned about the rise in energy costs this Autumn, so every household is set to get £400 off their energy bills from October, with no repayments necessary.”
Sunak announced a 25 per cent windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas companies to help pay for the £15 billion support package.
The “temporary Energy Profits Levy” on oil and gas firms will raise around £5 billion, with a new investment allowance to encourage firms to invest in oil and gas extraction in the UK.
Sunak said: “It is right that companies making extraordinary windfall profits from rising energy prices should contribute, and I’m introducing a temporary energy profits levy to help pay for this support, while still encouraging the investment that generates jobs in Scotland.”
The new Investment Allowance incentivises companies to invest through saving them 91p for every £1 they invest.
This nearly doubles the tax relief available and means the more a company invests, the less tax they will pay.
The windfall tax was first proposed by Labour and Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves asked the chancellor to adopt more of her party's ideas to help with the cost-of-living crisis.
She told the Commons: “I know that the Chancellor has adopted two of our ideas today, but can I ask why he has not adopted a third: a cut in VAT on energy bills?
“It was once touted as the ‘big Brexit bonus’, but he has ditched that too.”
She added: “We pushed for a windfall tax, they adopted it. We said the buy now, pay later scheme was wrong and now they have ditched it.”
'Very glad'
SNP work and pensions spokeswoman Kirsty Blackman said she was “very glad” money has been announced for the poorest households, but warned: “It’s not enough.”
She told the Commons: “I don’t understand why he has announced only a £15 billion package. He has got £28 billion of fiscal headroom in public sector net debt, he has got £32 billion of fiscal headroom in balancing the current budget, those are the OBR’s figures from March.
Blackman added: “It’s quite amusing to hear the Chancellor talk about this being ‘timely’, I mean it is timely it just happens to have happened in the week of the Sue Gray report, and the Chancellor has suddenly realised today that people are really struggling, that he’s suddenly realised he needs to announce something about it.”
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