Around 4.5m pensioners have been forced to stay in one heated
room in their homes to save on fuel costs, according to Help the
Aged and British Gas.
A survey for the organisations, who have formed a partnership
to protect older people from fuel poverty, found over one-third of
pensioners sometimes stayed or lived in one room because they could
not afford to heat the rest of their homes. The problem was found
to have got worse, with an estimated extra 2m pensioners taking
these measures compared to last year.
It was also found that one in four pensioners kept warm by
wrapping up in blankets and staying in bed, compared to one in
seven last year. Additionally, it was estimated that nearly 6.5m
pensioners would be forced to turn down their heating to save money
this winter.
Help the Aged and British Gas called for the government to
ensure automatic payment of benefits to pensioners, with up to £5bn
currently going unclaimed.
Damning indictment
Partnership spokesperson Mervyn Kohler said: “This is a damning
indictment of the government’s approach to cutting fuel poverty and
it is time that it started to take its targets seriously.”
Last month,
Help the Aged and Friends of the Earth lost a judicial review
brought against the government's expected failure to meet its
statutory target of ending fuel poverty for vulnerable households,
including pensioners, by 2010.
Under the
Warm Homes
and Energy Conservation Act 2000, the government must produce
and implement a strategy to meet the target, and the associated
target of ending fuel poverty for all by 2016, as far as is
"reasonably practicable".
Help the Aged said the High Court had ruled that the
government's duty was to implement its strategy, but judges did not
comment on the quality of the strategy, which the charity claimed
was out of date.
Fuel poverty occurs when a household spends more than 10% of its
disposable income on keeping warm.
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