Fuel poverty

Fergus Hewison
The Politics Show
North East and Cumbria

Soaring fuel bills are a worry for many this winter. However, not just pensioners are suffering. Fergus Hewison reports...

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Maria Burnell, from Whitley Bay, is not looking forward to this winter.

She has already started switching off lights and going to bed early to save electricity.

And she is not alone.

Government help?

Linda Holden, from Gateshead, says people like her are really suffering - and the big fuel bills have not even arrived yet.

So what is the government doing to help - and is it enough?

In his famous 1942 report, reformer William Beveridge identified want, squalor, ignorance, idleness, and disease as "social evils" to be eradicated by a modern day welfare state.

Now, fuel poverty - defined as when members of household spend more than 10% of their combined income on keeping themselves warm, clean and fed - is being talked about in these terms.

It is hardly surprising with the cost of energy rising ever upwards.

According to a report by the National Housing Federation, the average bill is set to climb to £1,406 next year, up from £676 in 2005.

Fuel poverty increasing

A drain on family budgets...

The same report estimates that by the end of 2009, 5.7 million UK households will be in fuel poverty - that is a rise of 100% since 2005.

And, if you're one of the five million people who pay for energy by using pre-payment meters, you are usually charged more than those who are billed quarterly - £76 a year more by 2010, the report says.

As you might imagine, many people are dreading the approaching winter.

Linda Holden believes it is not just elderly people who need winter fuel payments. She said: "Nothing against old people, old people need help.

"But there are disabled people who need help, there are people with children that need help, there's the likes of me that doesn't fall into any of those categories that need help, but they don't seem as if they grasp it.

"You know they're talking about 'we'll go back and we'll talk to the fuel companies and you know we'll try and sort something out'.

"Trying is not good enough, they need to be coming and doing something because people are suffering and they're really suffering hard now."

Lifestyle changed

Maria Burnell has already made changes to her lifestyle and says: "Well we just won't be able to afford it basically.

"Last year, in the winter, we were paying about £15 a week.

"Up to now, we are paying about £12.50 a week, I have not had the heating on yet.

"We used to have a bath, every single day, now the bath we have every other day, rather than having the electric going.

People fear the rolling numbers

"In the evening we go to bed, put the lights out downstairs. We go to bed because it's warm under the quilt and we've got the TV on, but once we're kind of settled upstairs we turn the lights off and sit in the dark, just with the TV."

Windfall tax

Complaints like this, about the cost of gas and electricity, have led to demands for a windfall tax on energy companies, who are being accused of cashing in on the rising cost of fuel - at the expense of the poor.

For its part, the government, in September, unveiled a £910m package of measures in conjunction with the big energy companies aimed at helping people meet those soaring bills.

This includes half price insulation for all households and a freeze on this year's bills for the poorest families.

Government response

Energy Minister, Malcolm Wicks, says the government is by no means complacent.

"It is the global demand for energy that is pushing up prices, but that is no comfort to the fuel-poor who need support", he said.

On Sunday's Politics Show we will hear more from Linda and Maria - and we will be asking the politicians what they are doing to help people like them.

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