London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Oct 15, 2025

£150 cost of living payments for Scottish households

£150 cost of living payments for Scottish households

Three quarters of Scottish households will be given a £150 payment in a bid to tackle the rising cost of living.

Finance Secretary Kate Forbes said the cash would go to households in council tax bands A to D and all of those eligible for council tax reduction.

It means some 1.85 million households - 73% of the total - will receive £150 of support when those elements are combined.

An extra £10m is also to be targeted at people struggling with fuel bills.

The cash is in addition to £120m allocated to local government in a bid to hold down council tax increases in the coming year.

Ms Forbes said that the payments were honestly "not enough" with households across the UK struggling, and called for "urgent" action from the UK government to help.

Concerns about the cost of living are mounting, amid rising prices and energy bills and coming changes to National Insurance.

Ms Forbes said these costs would "hit the most vulnerable in our society the hardest", potentially pushing households into fuel poverty.

The finance secretary said there was still uncertainty about how much extra funding is on offer from the UK government, but committed to spending £290m in "targeted assistance" for those on the lowest incomes.

The £150 payments will go to all occupied households in council tax bands A to D, as well as all of those in receipt of council tax reduction.

Local authorities will have the choice of delivering this either as a direct cash payment or as a credit to council tax accounts.

Ms Forbes said this was "clearly an imperfect scheme", but said it was "the only route we have to make sure we reach those for whom it will make a difference, quickly and simply".

She added: "I will be writing to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury highlighting that we must work together urgently so we can use our joint powers to do more to tackle the cost of living."

'Children are coming into school asking for food'
Teacher Danielle Fletcher-Horn can see the effects of the cost-of-living crisis daily both at school and in her charity work


Danielle Flecher-Horn is a teacher, and founder of Aberdeen charity AberNecessities, which has been handing out hot water bottles since fuel prices soared.

"People are not turning their heating on and we are providing hot water bottles," she said. "So at least children are going to bed relatively warm, but they're certainly not warm when they're waking up."

She said the charity was experiencing an increase in applications for really basic food essentials.

As a teacher, she has seen children coming into school asking for food.

"There might have been one or two cases throughout my 12 years of teaching where children have come in hungry, but this is daily, they are coming in asking members of staff for a cereal bar, a bit of fruit, anything, because they haven't eaten the night before."

"We are asking children to come in to learn, it's not possible when you've got an empty tummy. It's heartbreaking."

An extra £10m is being added to the "fuel insecurity fund", which helps households which have to ration their energy use or face being cut off due to "unaffordable" fuel prices.

The UK government is also looking at offering a repayable £200 discount on energy bills for households in England, Wales and Scotland from October.

However UK ministers have dismissed calls for a one-off "windfall tax" on oil giants which have posted big profits - proposed by Labour and backed by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon - saying it would only raise prices for consumers and hit investment.

An additional £10m will be targeted at people struggling with fuel bills


Citizens Advice Scotland said that while extra support was welcome, "the stark reality is that lots of people are still going to be significantly worse off".

Chief executive Derek Mitchell said: "The spring is going to see a cost of living crisis which will squeeze household budgets to breaking point. People are already struggling badly."

And the Poverty Alliance said it was "deeply disappointing" that Ms Forbes plans mirrored UK government plans to funnel support through the council tax system.

They said: "The measures fail to properly target support at people on the lowest incomes - this was a missed opportunity to protect people living in poverty from the waves of hardship that threaten to overwhelm them."


It may seem surprising that the Scottish government says it will fund council tax discounts to help households deal with rising energy bills.

They were decidedly lukewarm about using the council tax when the Westminster government announced a similar scheme in England last week.

Some had expected them to use the money from Westminster to support those struggling with their fuel bills in other ways.

By the Scottish government's admission, using the council tax for this is imperfect.

The Scottish scheme will not operate in quite the same way as in England though.

In Scotland, it should benefit everyone who receives council tax reduction regardless of which band their home is in - while in England the risk is that those in larger houses who are "asset rich but cash poor" like some retired people might get no extra help.

The advantage of using the council tax is that it is relatively quick and straightforward.

Targeted help for individual households could be harder to administer and take longer to be effective.

With fuel bills rising, there is an urgency in providing help.

Ms Forbes made her announcement at Holyrood during the final debate of the Scottish government's tax and spending plans for the coming year.

The finance secretary said the budget "provides a platform to accelerate our recovery from the pandemic, tackle inequalities, invest in the economy and public services and continue a just transition to net-zero".

The budget bill passed with the SNP and their Green partners holding a majority at Holyrood, but opposition parties hit out at the plans.

Scottish Conservative finance spokeswoman Liz Smith said the SNP had been "profligate with taxpayers money" and had wasted cash which could have been spent in the budget.

She added: "Because of the unholy alliance between the SNP and the Greens, this budget has been a fait accompli from day one. It's a budget that has failed to put economic recovery first and failed to put forward the delivery of local services."

And Scottish Labour's Paul Sweeney said the budget was "timid, regressive and unambitious".

He added: "It doesn't do nearly enough to tackle the cost of living crisis which is no longer looming in the distance, but is staring us directly in the face. We all have a duty to do everything we possibly can to address the hardship faced by families."

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Erika Kirk Delivers Moving Tribute at White House as Trump Awards Charlie Presidential Medal of Freedom
British Food Influencer ‘Big John’ Detained in Australia After Visa Dispute
ScamBodia: The Chinese Fraud Empire Shielded by Cambodia’s Ruling Elite
French PM Suspends Macron’s Pension Reform Until After 2027 in Bid to Stabilize Government
Orange, Bouygues and Free Make €17 Billion Bid for Drahi’s Altice France Telecom Assets
Dutch Government Seizes Chipmaker After U.S. Presses for Removal of Chinese CEO
Bessent Accuses China of Dragging Down Global Economy Amid New Trade Curbs
U.S. Revokes Visas of Foreign Nationals Who ‘Celebrated’ Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
AI and Cybersecurity at Forefront as GITEX Global 2025 Kicks Off in Dubai
DJI Loses Appeal to Remove Pentagon’s ‘Chinese Military Company’ Label
EU Deploys New Biometric Entry/Exit System: What Non-EU Travelers Must Know
Australian Prime Minister’s Private Number Exposed Through AI Contact Scraper
Ex-Microsoft Engineer Confirms Famous Windows XP Key Was Leaked Corporate License, Not a Hack
China’s lesson for the US: it takes more than chips to win the AI race
Australia Faces Demographic Risk as Fertility Falls to Record Low
California County Reinstates Mask Mandate in Health Facilities as Respiratory Illness Risk Rises
Israel and Hamas Agree to First Phase of Trump-Brokered Gaza Truce, Hostages to Be Freed
French Political Turmoil Elevates Marine Le Pen as Rassemblement National Poised for Power
China Unveils Sweeping Rare Earth Export Controls to Shield ‘National Security’
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
×