Ahead of a Winter Fuel Payment protest in Westminster tomorrow supported by the End Fuel Poverty Coalition and Warm This Winter, new research from Independent Age/YouGov finds that 49% of older people in England who will lose their Winter Fuel Payment said they were planning to only heat and spend time in one room.
Simon Francis, coordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, commented: “The new figures confirm that many older people will now start to develop unsafe behaviours as a result of the winter fuel payment cuts, including limiting themselves to living in one room of their homes during the winter.
“Until the Government fully implements its plans to improve insulation and ventilation of buildings as well as stabilise energy costs, vulnerable households will continue to need financial support. That’s why the Winter Fuel Payments were so important, the money provided help for older households to stay warm each winter.
“Sadly, now more older people are expected to live in cold damp homes this winter and this puts them at greater risk of ill health, meaning the costs to the NHS will soar.”
Warm This Winter spokesperson Caroline Simpson said: “Over half a million people from all walks of life have voiced their fears about the winter fuel payments being axed through these petitions and we urge the Government to listen to them with a delay this winter so the impact can be properly assessed and help given to those pensioners who will not cope without it.
“We know the majority of people in the UK support an affordable, social tariff which would help the most vulnerable such as families, the ill and the 6.5 million in fuel poverty, funded by the wider energy industry who are raking in billions in profits while we are all paying 60 percent more on our energy bills since the start of the crisis.
“The government must also get on with the important business of insulating homes – which is the quickest way to reduce bills – and continue its drive to ramp up renewable energy, ending our reliance on volatile oil and gas to bring down bills for everyone for good.”
