Some of the UK's poorest families are not getting the help they need to heat their homes this winter from energy suppliers because of a funding shortfall, a leading charity has warned.
Save the Children claims a national government-run scheme set up to help with household bills had reached just 3% of families at risk of fuel poverty because energy companies have not committed enough funds to support vulnerable customers.
According to the charity, 800,000 of the poorest families who get cold weather payments should also qualify for a £120 discount on fuel bills under the Warm Homes Discount scheme, but a huge funding shortfall means only 25,000 families will get it.
Its research shows that growing up in cold, damp homes can slow children's development, worsen long-term problems like asthma, and lead to rises in hospital admission rates.
The charity's No Child Left in the Cold campaign is calling on energy companies and the government to fill this funding gap, so more families are given the fuel discount. It also urges companies to better promote the scheme to low income families.
The Warm Homes Discount scheme grants a rebate to eligible households of £120 in the first year (ie winter 2011-12), £130 in year two, £135 in year three and £140 in year four on their energy bills.
But the charity says it is fundamentally flawed because the government does not require the energy companies to provide enough funding to support all households on low incomes and at risk of fuel poverty.
It said: "Despite research which shows the risk of living in fuel poverty is almost the same for low-income families as it is for pensioners, the government has decided that only poorer pensioners will form the 'core group' automatically eligible for support.
"The 'broader group' are eligible for – but will not automatically receive – the discount because payment is at the discretion of each energy company."
Save the Children's chief executive officer Justin Forsyth said: "It is unacceptable that 97% of the UK's poorest families who need help heating their homes this winter will get nothing because energy companies have not put up nearly enough money.
"Without this help the choice for parents is stark: cut back on food, get into debt or risk their children's health because they can't afford to keep them warm. The scheme urgently needs millions more from the energy companies, or the cost will be counted in children's futures."
Almost a third of low-income parents (earning less than £12,000 and deemed to be living in severe poverty) with children under 16 polled by the charity said they won't be able to afford their winter energy bills, almost half (45%) said they were considering cutting back on food in order to pay their bills, and only 9% said they had heard of, and were planning to apply for, the Warm Homes Discount.
A spokesperson for the Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC) said about 2m homes were set to get discounted bills under the Warm Home Discount scheme, significantly more than under the previous voluntary scheme. "This year, suppliers will be required to spend up to £250m – that is 40% more than last year. We hope energy companies will strive to help all their customers that qualify.
"But we're also focusing on the causes of fuel poverty – in particular poor household energy efficiency. There is free and cheap insulation available to low income households from energy suppliers and the Warm Front scheme, and this will be also be a core feature of the new Green Deal from the end of the year."
Christine McGourty, director of Energy UK, said: "Far more than 25,000 families will get help from their energy companies this year. Almost £180m was spent last year on voluntary schemes to help nearly 2 million of the most vulnerable customers, and that figure will increase to £250m this year.
"Following consultation, the government decided who will benefit from core funding under the new Warm Home Discount scheme, and those customers will get an automatic discount off their electricity bill without the need to apply for it. A wider group of 650,000 people by 2013-14 will also benefit.
"All the major energy companies have been writing to their customers this winter promoting the help that is available and all of them fund the free and independent Home Heat Helpline advice service on 0800 33 66 99. It's important that families stay warm this winter and anyone who is worried about paying their energy bill should get in touch with the helpline."
Comments
4 January 2012 7:58AM
So helping people out of the cold involves dragging me via extra taxes into being cold. !
4 January 2012 9:00AM
You don't need heat, it's obvious.
The warmth radiating from your heart keeps you cosy I can tell.
That aside, If the energy companies were to stop penalising people for paying by means other than direct debit it would be a start and wouldn't require that we further burden the socially minded like yourself.
4 January 2012 9:30AM
You do know you are FREE to pop round and give as much of YOUR money as you like to people in 'fuel poverty', How much would you be willing to give on top of what you already pay?
4 January 2012 9:47AM
It is all part of government's social engineering policy, if you don't have money or a job you are expected to watch your children slowly starve and freeze in winter. In the government's opinion there was no link between poverty and the summer riots, it was just criminals breaking the law. How easy to criminalise the poorest in society and thus create fodder for the criminal (in)justice system and all the parasitic lawyers/solicitors earning £250/hour through their oath to the Crown, yes folks the Crown, an institution that has little to do with Elizabeth Windsor and everything to do with the City of London Corp'.
Anyone reading this who is poor or has debts to banks should check out Get Out of Debt Free and send the letters!
Our system is corrupt to the core so why should you or yours starve/freeze by trying to play their game, don't let the greed driven remnant of aristocracy socially engineer you out of existence, fight back by sending the letters!
4 January 2012 10:37AM
Aww poor you.
Never mind that the vast majority of those eligible for help are pensioners who would also have paid taxes for years and whadya know - you benefitted from them in the form of free education, your mother would have got child benefit & the list goes on.
Bleat bleat bleat is all we get from the "hard working tax payer" these days who by some trick of the mind, seem to forget the fact that there are millons more who have paid & do pay taxes without complaint for the benefit of the society around them regardless of the personalities involved.
4 January 2012 10:46AM
Not at all. If you are on average pay or less there's no reason why you should pay more tax. Those who should cough up are the ones with billions secreted in off-shore accounts. If their stash was taxed in the UK as it should be, there'd be no need for the cruel 'austerity' being forced on so many of us at present.
4 January 2012 10:46AM
A typical outcome from this governnent. Announce some great initiative with little or no chance of it working and you can con people for a little bit longer. See the story elsewhere reporting that an Osborne insurance payments holiday plan which he said would be taken up by 400,000 firms outside London leading to at least that many jobs has attracted 10,000 take-ups and not even that many jobs.
This is the bullshit government led by the chief bullshitter David Bullingdon.
Let's have a much more comprehensive check on how what they say matches what is actually happening. The press won't do it because they are in the Tory's pockets and the most likely to do so -the Guardian is still trying to get over its disastrous election stance so is reluctant to show even more how wrong they were. So on-line forums seem to be the best way forward and try to get our voices heard by a wider audience.
4 January 2012 11:27AM
So how much more of my money would you like? Im already doing 60hrs a week to keep my family warm and fed.
Are you a Tax payer? can i have some of you money please? i'll send you my pay-pay account number and if not, why not..
4 January 2012 11:48AM
@larrybell
Don't fret, Larry - it won't be long before the Tories bring back workhouses - then those irksome poor people won't be such a burden on the hard done by taxpayers like your good self.
4 January 2012 11:57AM
About bloody time to.
4 January 2012 11:58AM
The Labour party is struggling to find it's raison d'etre in the post Blair era - here's an idea, Ed - re nationalise our utilities. Take back what Thatcher gave away to the brigands who now have control. Go on, Ed - don't be afraid of looking like a Labour party leader!
4 January 2012 12:01PM
@Larrybell-
Well Larry, it does appear that you haven't exactly overburdened the taxpayer with your use of the education system, so fair play to you - perhaps you do have justification for your selfishness.
4 January 2012 12:12PM
What? Are you for real? You want people who can't find work (because hey, there isn't much up north) to go into workhouses, with their children? I am sure lots of them would love to have work and would happily work 60 hours a week. BUT THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH JOBS especially full-time work. Minimum wage is not enough to keep a family on and pay all your bills.
4 January 2012 1:55PM
Its research shows that growing up in cold, damp homes can slow children's development, worsen long-term problems like asthma
A good idea would be to star building houses that are not cold and damp. Sending heat in to the atmosphere only keeps the pigeons warm.
4 January 2012 1:57PM
@larrybell
Well this wonderful coalition is working hard for you. Its changes to Inavilidity benefits, Housing benefits, cutting of tax credits, will soon get rid of this sponging benefits scum. Plus the high food and fuel prices will also get rid of those grave dodgers your paying for in their state pensions and extar winter fuel payments.....
4 January 2012 2:06PM
Young men place in a workhouse to learn a trade.
Looks a better prospect than the £65 a week they are getting now.
ECKINGTON DISTRICT
NAME AGE IN THE YEAR PLACED TRADE/OCCUPATION
GEORGE OLDHAM 15 1882 Blacksmith
GEORGE HOWIS 14half 1885 Tailor
CHARLES HOWIS 14 1886 Tailor and Draper
JOHN A.STOPPARD 14 1887 Hairdresser and Photographer
HENRY CONWAY 14 1887 Tailor
WALTER HOLMES 15 1889 Tailor
JAMES LANG 16 1889 Shoemaker and Clogger
WILLIAM GODDARD 15 1891 Tailor
GEORGE SMITH 15 1891 Grocer
4 January 2012 2:40PM
Never mind larry Bell when you loose your job at least you know you'll be looked after, well at least in the winter time, poor soul.
4 January 2012 2:59PM
I think its very hard to freeze to death in any home in the UK which is weatherproof.
Yes it might be unpleasant but up until about 40 years ago central heating was a rich man's luxury.
Of course there are exceptions.
But for the majority... put on more warm clothes.
That said...
The ONLY way a fair price will be put on fuel is for nationalisation of the gas and electricity businesses and then a capping of energy prices. The system now encourages profiteering and inflation.
So far this winter its been remarkably mild.
Wait for the cold and the inevitable skyrocketing bills. Then there will be trouble.
4 January 2012 5:11PM
A society that lest the poor, the elderly, children and sick and disabled people freeze while the bankers and feral rich continue to bleed us dry and send their money offshore is not a decent society.
As for people like @larrybell, well, they've probably never experienced having an incurable illness where the cold makes them worse and, yet, be unable to afford to heat themselves in the winter.
People such as larrybell are sociopaths who care only about "their" money and would be happy to see people freeze to death if it means they get to keep an extra pound or two a week.
I despair at what the UK has become. A selfish, me-first, to hell with the weak society is what we now live in.
6 January 2012 9:55AM
@larrybell: If the tiny likely burden of extra taxation is all that stands between you and being unable to heat your property, you either have an absurdly under-insulated property, or are in the group that will be helped by this work.