THE SNP Government has been accused of breaking a key manifesto commitment on winter fuel payments for pensioners.

Nicola Sturgeon’s party vowed to give around 80,000 senior citizens who heat their homes with “off grid” energy early access to the subsidy.

However, the First Minister’s administration has now confirmed the policy is an “ambition”, while adding that the top priority is ensuring current and future recipients receive the benefit.

Scottish Tory MSP Alexander Burnett said: “This is yet another manifesto commitment that the SNP have reneged on. They made a promise to tens of thousands of pensioners that they would provide extra help on winter fuel payments, but once again they’ve failed to deliver.

“It just goes to show that you cannot trust anything that the SNP say, even when it comes to important issues such as tackling fuel poverty.”

As a result of the cross-party Smith Commission, set up in the wake of the independence referendum, Westminster transferred control of a range of social security benefits to the Scottish Parliament.

Although a new agency for devolved benefits has been set up, the Government has adopted a cautious approach to taking on administrative responsibility for the new powers.

Addressing Parliament recently, Social Security Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said full control over benefits would not be fully devolved until 2024.

Ministers are nervous about their new agency becoming responsible for payments to hundreds of thousands of people, and want to wait until a smooth handover is guaranteed.

One of the devolved benefits is the Winter Fuel Payment, the entitlement for which is linked to ongoing changes in the state pension age.

In 2017-2018, just over one million people in Scotland received a WFP - worth between £100 and £300 - and the total value of payments was approximately £176m.

Sturgeon’s Government intends to replace the WFP with a new Winter Heating Assistance payment, which will be extended to cover families with severely disabled children.

However, the SNP’s 2016 manifesto made clear that the Nationalists would also provide special help to older people, mainly living in rural areas, who buy their own energy.

Given that the payment is made around December, when power companies tend to jack up prices, giving the “off grid” customers the payment in the summer would help them buy cheaper energy.

The manifesto stated: “We’ll also make payments early for those who are off-grid, so that they can take advantage of lower prices.”

The SNP website also claimed in January last year that the party would “ensure” early payment to the almost 80,000 pensioners in this category.

According to a new Government “policy paper”, it appears that the manifesto commitment will not be met in the lifetime of this Parliament, which ends in April 2021.

The document stated that the Government will pay the new WHA to everyone in Scotland as they reach the female state pension age, but only “progressively from November 2021 onwards”.

The Government also stated its “first priority” is to ensure current and new recipients receive the benefit to which they are entitled.

On the off-grid commitment, the paper sounded a cautious note: “Our ambition is to improve the way that the new Winter Heating Assistance is delivered to households, in particular in remote rural and island communities that are not on the gas grid.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “As set out in the Programme for Government, we will begin payments for some of the most vulnerable recipients before the end of this parliament with Social Security Scotland paying the new Winter Heating Assistance to families with a severely disabled child in 2020 and for people over the state pension age in 2021 including those who are off grid.

“Our proposals for Winter Heating Assistance are currently being developed with those who have experience of relying on it including those who rely on off grid energy supplies to understand how we can better support them. We remain committed to making early payments to those who are off grid.”