Shirley-Anne Somerville MSP
Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice
Scottish Government
St Andrew's House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG
12 March 2026
Dear Cabinet Secretary,
I am writing to outline Consumer Scotland’s recommendation to provide additional support with energy bills to people in Scotland with a terminal illness.
Consumer Scotland research suggests that households where a member has a disability or health condition are twice as likely to report difficulty keeping up with energy bills. This can result from having higher energy usage than other consumers, prompted by reasons including the need to keep their home warmer or to run complex medical equipment. The
current energy bill support schemes available to households are largely income-based, meaning that where a household has significantly higher than usual energy demand this is not reflected in the affordability support they may receive.
One group for whom this is a particularly acute problem is the terminally ill.
Targeted Support for People living with Terminal Illness
According to research carried out by Marie Curie, terminally ill people’s bills can rise by as much as 75% after diagnosis due to additional essential energy use, including an enhanced heating regime and the cost to run medical devices at home.2 This additional cost is not specifically recognised in the energy affordability supports currently available.
Consumer Scotland has produced a short briefing paper (attached) with costed policy recommendations to improve support for terminally ill consumers. This could be delivered through the pre-existing devolved social security support mechanisms for terminally ill people. The analysis is based on up-to-date figures and Consumer Scotland’s previously published report which made recommendations to enhance energy affordability support,
and widen access to suitable energy efficiency measures, for terminally ill people. The key points to note include:
- There are existing mechanisms in Scotland’s social security system, under the Special Rules for Terminal Illness (SRTI), and identification and validation of eligibility specifically through the Benefits Assessment for Special Rules in Scotland (BASRiS). Data indicates that in October 2025 there were 13,350 individuals in Scotland who had a terminal illness under BASRiS eligibility.
- Terminal illness support for energy bills can mirror existing energy support and social security schemes, either by extending these to terminally ill working-age households or providing similar support to households solely in receipt of disability benefits and/or meeting the BASRiS criteria
- The options paper provides a variety of potential costings for support. We recommend a bespoke amount of £450 per SRTI-eligible individual, based on 25% of a typical dual fuel energy bill of a Scottish household under the current Ofgem energy price cap. We have also presented alternatives, including expanding the eligibility of existing winter heating benefits to include terminally ill consumers, and utilising existing social security mechanisms. The total cost range of the options presented is £58.75 to £450 per individual
Consumer Scotland would be pleased to discuss further the options for improving energy affordability support for terminally ill people in Scotland and how this can be delivered.
I have written in similar terms to the spokespeople of the parties represented in Parliament.
Kind regards
Sam Ghibaldan