A KEY recommendation made by Nicola Sturgeon’s poverty advisor has been dismissed by SNP ministers just days after the expert revealed her long-awaited findings. Naomi Eisenstadt, who was hired by the First Minister to scrutinise Scottish Government policies and come up with new ways of reducing inequality, called for fuel poverty programmes to be targeted at helping the poor. However, the Scottish Government said it had “no plans” to strip automatic winter fuel payments, which see up to £300 a year handed out to pensioners regardless of wealth, from better off recipients once the benefit comes under Holyrood control. Ms Eisenstadt, who warned Ms Sturgeon that tackling poverty meant taking “tough decisions”, said yesterday that it was “wrong” that better-off older people like herself received the benefit when the money could instead be invested on those in greater need.
Herald 25th Jan 2016 read more »