Rents, Rail Fares Free School Meals To All Ages Primary School and more

6th September 2022

Scottish Government Help in Brief to help with cost of living.

Rent and fuel fares will be frozen from today (6 September)
Ms Sturgeon announced several reforms. They are:

A rent freeze put in place until at least 31 March 2023. This applies to public and private rented properties and means landlords cannot raise the price of your rent.

There will be a moratorium on evictions, which means landlords cannot evict tenants for not paying rent.

ScotRail fares will be frozen from 6 September. These will be capped until at least 31 March 2023. This means rail fares in Scotland will NOT go up during that period.

The 'Fuel Security Fund' will double from £10 million to £20 million. This provides support for households struggling to pay their energy bills.

Free school meals will be widened out to ALL primary school ages.

Funding for discretionary housing payments will be increased by £5 million.

Eligibility for the 'Tenant Grant Fund', introduced as part of the Scottish Government's Covid response, will be extended. This will provide help to those struggling to pay rent.

A Housing Bill will be introduced in the coming year. This is aimed at helping to improve affordability for the longer term, provide new and strengthened rights for tenants, and preventing homelessness.

From 14 November, child payment support will increase to £25 a week per child. This includes all eligible children under 16.

The 'Early Learning Payment' and 'School Age Payment' will be automatically awarded to families getting the Scottish child payment. They do not need to make an additional application.