Rural charity launches one-off grant to help with farmers' fuel costs

An annual campaign by Scottish rural charity Royal Scottish Agricultural Benevolent Institution (RSABI) has been launched to help those in rural areas who are living in fuel poverty.

RSABI is highlighting its winter 'Help for Heating' Fund by offering a one-off grant of £300, which is available to anyone who has worked full-time on the land for at least 10 years but can no longer do so due to age and/or disability and who now find themselves struggling to meet fuel costs.

Fuel poverty is defined as spending more than 10 per cent of total income on energy bills, and is a problem that many people living in rural areas face.

Mags Granger, welfare manager, said: “We were disappointed to discover that there are more people living in fuel poverty in Scotland despite a commitment by the Scottish Government in 2003 to eliminate fuel poverty by November 2016. According to The Report of the Scottish Fuel Poverty Strategic Working Group, one in three Scots are in fuel poverty. The situation is worse in rural areas where fuel poverty affects one in two people. RSABI have launched the Help for Heating campaign to offer assistance to those who are in fuel poverty and meet the criteria for assistance.

RSABI is a unique Scottish charity providing financial assistance, support and a helpline to people who have worked in land-based employment and through age, injury, illness or misfortune now experience hardship.

RSABI helps hundreds of people with backgrounds in agriculture, forestry, fish-farming, rural estate work, gamekeeping, crofting and horticulture who, due to illness, disability, poverty or crisis, find that they are unable to cope.

Earlier this year, the charity joined forces with the three main farming charities in England and Wales under the ‘Farming Help’ banner. Each charity offers a diverse range of complementary support to people from the agricultural world.