Low income families across Scotland will benefit from a new energy efficiency scheme that aims to help the fuel poor, Housing and Communities Minister Alex Neil said today.

The Energy Assistance Package will be backed by Scottish Government funding worth around £60m pounds per annum - 30% more than the original fuel poverty budget.

From April 6 the scheme will target pensioners and low income families with children aged under five, or children with a disability aged below 16.

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It will include benefit and tax credit and tariff checks to ensure people are receiving the right income and are paying the correct bill, as well as providing central heating and insulation.

The new scheme will be partly delivered by energy companies under their Carbon Emissions Reduction Target programmes, which will help ensure Scotland gets its fair share of CERT activity, estimated to be worth around £100m a year.

Mr Neil said: "One quarter of Scottish households are now classed as fuel poor. In a modern Scotland that sobering statistic casts a shadow over the whole country.

"The most vulnerable members of society will be targeted - pensioners and for the first time, low income families. I want to see incomes boosted, fuel bills reduced and energy efficiency improved in homes."

Fuel poverty is defined as when households spend more than 10% of their income in household fuel.

(GK/JM)