Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Inverness Common Good Fund to provide top-up payments to help with rising winter fuel bills

Inverness residents will benefit from extra £50 on Winter Payments Scheme
Inverness residents will benefit from extra £50 on Winter Payments Scheme

Inverness councillors have agreed to top up the city’s Winter Payments scheme to £138.

The Inverness Winter Payments Scheme helps the most vulnerable families in the city to meet the cost of heating their homes.

Councillors have extended the deadline from February 28, 2022 to April 30, 2022. The maximum payment has increased from £88 to £138.

Inverness Common Good Fund will cover the extra cost, with £100,000 set aside.

The fund is open to households in Aird and Loch Ness, Inverness West, Inverness Central, Inverness Ness-side, Inverness Millburn, Culloden and Ardersier and Inverness South.

To qualify, applicants must be in receipt of certain benefits. The full criteria can be found on the council’s website.

If a household has already received their £88 winter payment, the council will send out an additional £50 top up.

The extra funding aims to offset the sharp increase in gas prices. On 1 April 2022, the energy price cap will increase 54%, costing the average household nearly £700 a year extra.

‘How on earth can families meet this?’

The proposal started out as a motion by SNP councillors Ken Gowans and Glynis Sinclair, before arriving to Inverness committee as an official council proposal.

Both councillors said they were happy to support the plan, and withdraw their motion.

“I agree this is absolutely necessary,” said Mr Gowans.

Councillor Ken Gowans. Picture by Jason Hedges

“This is an unprecedented rise in energy costs at around £700 a year. How on earth are families meant to meet this?”

Mr Gowans added that council may want to consider reviewing the budget for the Inverness Winter Payments Scheme in future.

Council officers say that demand for the fund has increased by 59% over the last six years, and this will continue to rise alongside gas prices.

Councillor Alasdair Christie said: “I’ve been with the Citizens Advice Bureau for 20 years and I’ve never seen anything like this.

“We need to be out there helping people with this, because it’s not going to get better.”