Cold homes, according to health activists, might aggravate lung and breathing problems, while one poverty action group claims the country is on poverty’s “cliff edge”.
Campaigners have warned that unless a fresh £14 billion package of emergency relief is provided, about seven million homes in the UK will face catastrophic fuel poverty.
The Warm This Winter pressure group says despite the Energy Price Guarantee, the £400 energy bills payment, and other support already announced, much more help will be needed to prevent the “severe health impacts of living in cold, damp homes crippling the NHS and causing excess winter deaths”.
The group is calling for urgent additional assistance for the most vulnerable.
Financially, it is urging for a third cost of living payment of £325 for those on income-linked benefits to be paid on 1 December.
And chief among the non-financial asks is an immediate suspension of all forced transfers of households onto more expensive pre-payment meters, whether by court warrant or remotely via smart meters.
Warm This Winter is also asking for a further £150 to be given in disability benefits, the restoration of the £20 Universal Credit uplift, increasing the energy bill support payments for people who do not have a mains gas connection, and ensuring all households who received the Warm Homes Discount last winter can access a £150 rebate this winter.
Even including the Energy Price Guarantee, the End Fuel Poverty Coalition calculates the unit cost of gas has increased by between 153% and 165% since winter 2021, while the unit cost of electricity has increased by 63-68%.
‘Extremely concerned’
Sarah Woolnough, CEO of research and campaigning charity Asthma + Lung UK, said with millions of homes on the verge of fuel poverty, they were “extremely concerned the nation’s lung health will rapidly deteriorate”.
“If people cannot afford to heat their homes, they may be forced to live in freezing homes where cold and flu viruses can thrive,” she said.
“We know people with lung conditions are already struggling with price hikes – one in five we surveyed said they’d had an asthma attack because of changes they’d made to their lives in response to the cost of living crisis, such as skipping meals, not picking up prescriptions, and using mains-powered medical machinery less.
“Things will only get worse when temperatures plummet and colds and viruses ramp up.”
The government introduced the energy price guarantee to help. It limits the amount a household can be charged per unit of gas or electricity to help ease the damage to family finances caused by the wider cost of living crisis.
It means the taxpayer will pay the difference between the set unit cost and any higher unit cost.
It also introduced the £400 Energy Bills Support Scheme, administered by energy suppliers, and paid over the course of six months starting in October, to ensure consumers receive financial support throughout the winter months.
All households in England, Scotland, and Wales are eligible.
But Simon Francis, co-ordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, said the support now would only create a “cliff edge in April 2023” when the payouts stopped.
“This will result in the number of households in fuel poverty rising to almost eight million. The situation will be made worse if benefits are not uprated by inflation and if prescription charges increase,” he warned.
It comes after the National Grid’s Electricity System Operator said last week the UK could face power cuts in the “unlikely” event supplies of gas fall short of demand.
Free boiler repairs
Warm this Winter is a new campaign demanding the government act now to help tackle rising energy bills this winter and to ensure energy is affordable for everyone in the future.
It is supported by leading anti-poverty and environmental organisations, including Save the Children, WWF, and the End Fuel Poverty Coalition.
Other measures it has suggested the government could consider for supporting households to stay warm this winter, include introducing a public information campaign, giving guidance to local authorities on best practices in using the Household Support Fund to deliver free boiler repairs, and working with charities and councils to increase the provision of energy advice.
Working with landlords, the government could also, it says, support tenants in fuel poverty by introducing a social rent cap and a private sector rent freeze.