Fed up with the cold yet? Don't worry, it will become milder next week - and may coincide with a bill dropping through your letterbox as a reminder of all the extra heating you have used recently.
For vulnerable people and pensioners, the extra £25 cold weather payment promised by the government will help but, as Age Concern points out, more could be done.
The charity has been drawing attention to the £5bn in unclaimed benefits which the poorest pensioners are missing out on and suggests the government launches a high-profile campaign to ensure it is claimed.
The reaction from Age Concern is not unique as disquiet grows over high energy costs that hit poorer members of society hardest.
The think-tank Compass points out that about six million people in the UK are affected by fuel poverty, a figure that could increase as unemployment rises.
Now it is calling for government action - such as emergency price restrictions - on energy companies that fail to pass on the massive falls in the world price of oil.
Through the Fabian Society, former Environment Agency chair Sir John Harman has joined in the clamour, stating that it is a mark of a civilised society to expect affordable access to warmth and light.
Harman gloomily predicts that the era of cheap energy will never return. To address this, the issue of government subsidies - yes, meddling in the free market, just like we have with the banking system - may have to be considered.
One group of people who will not be receiving help with their heating costs are those who have none: rough sleepers.
The current cold spell has seen Thames Reach's London Street Rescue battling the get homeless people off the streets and into warm, sheltered accommodation.
When we hear stories of pensioners shivering in their homes, caught in a financial dilemma about whether to turn up the heating, it is easy to overlook those who don't even have that option.
In our civilised society.
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