Target winter fuel help at poor OAPS

CALLS TO END UNIVERSAL BENEFIT

- PAUL HUTCHEON

Yousaf urged to take payout from better-off pensioners

HUMZA Yousaf is facing calls to strip wealthy pensioners of their Winter Fuel Payment.

Government advisers said the benefit is "poorly targeted" in the fight against rising poverty levels.

Pensioners can receive up to £600 a year to help with fuel bills under the current UK system.

The non-means-tested scheme will fall under Holyrood's control soon and be renamed the Pension Age Winter Heating Payment.

It will be delivered on a like-forlike basis and one million Scots pensioners will still be eligible.

But the Poverty and Inequality Commission wants a rethink.

In a consultation response on the future of the scheme, it said linking the payment to the state pension age was not a "progressive policy" from an anti-poverty perspective.