The SNP Government is to help ten thousand more families save around £900 a year on fuel bills through the Energy Assistance Package.

Launching the extension to the current Energy Assistance Package which provides advice and support on cutting fuel bills, including insulation and boilers Housing and Communities Minister Alex Neil said:

"The help available through our £60 million scheme is providing real help to bring down fuel bills so we're opening it up so that many more households can benefit.

"With rising fuel prices and bitterly cold weather like we've just had, we know it's not just the elderly that will struggle with their heating costs.

"We estimate that by opening up the help available, 10,000 more families will benefit from help to make their homes more energy efficient and cut their bills by hundreds of pounds.

"It's important that we give all the support we can to those effected by severe illness and who may therefore be struggling with fuel costs too - we've asked the Fuel Poverty Forum to investigate what we can do in this area and we'll be considering their recommendations as a matter of priority."

The scheme will be extended to all low income families with children under 16 and the fuel poverty forum is to investigate how support can be made available to those facing fuel poverty as a result of long term illness such as cancer.