Fuel Poverty

• Around 3m pensioner households are currently spending more than 10% of their income on fuel bills, and are deemed to be living in fuel poverty.
• A 1% increase in fuel bills places a further 40,000 older people into hardship.
• Almost one in three older people live in homes with inadequate heating or insulation making their homes more difficult to heat and/or keep warm.
• Average annual energy bills now exceed £1,000. This will absorb 16% of the income of a single pensioner dependent on the pension credit minimum guarantee and the current £250 Winter Fuel Payment. When the winter fuel allowance was first introduced, it covered about a third of the average energy bill. Now it covers less than a fifth.
• The Winter Fuel Allowance costs £2.7billion a year and gives £250 to every household with somebody over 60 and £400 for the over-80s.