The Elderly and Rising Heating Bills

Rising heating bills: Many pensioners cannot afford to keep their homes warm
By Steve DoughtyLONDON, England (Daily Mail), November 13, 2007:

A fifth of the over-60s spend their winter living in a single room because they cannot afford to keep their whole house warm, it was revealed yesterday. The shocking figure means that 2.5million older people limit their heating costs in this way. A survey also revealed that one million have to cut back on food to enable them to pay their heating bills. The study for the charity Help the Aged highlighted the scale of deprivation among the elderly and the reasons why so many of them die over the winter. It says that the complexity of many state benefits such as pension credit makes it hard for them to claim the cash, compounding their poverty. Help the Aged said £4.5billion worth of pension credit, housing benefit and council tax benefit goes unclaimed. It also estimated that that 25,000 die in winter because of illnesses linked to cold and hypothermia. According to the charity's research, large numbers of the over-60s resort to wearing gloves, overcoats and hats while indoors to avoid having to pay heating bills. A million go to public libraries, coffee shops or malls just to find somewhere warm and more than a million and a half go to bed in the daytime to find warmth under blankets, it said. Older people have been the poorest section of society for nearly a decade. Single mothers, who used to be the poorest group, have shot up the income scale thanks to Labour's tax credits and other benefits. But the elderly - who are supposed to be buoyed up by Gordon Brown's pension credit system - often fail to claim or are missed out by the system. The Daily Mail's Dignity for the Elderly campaign has highlighted the way many are cheated by the means test system when they need a place in a care home and how the vital home help that allows them to stay in their own property is being cut back by councils. The complexity of making a claim for pension credit and other benefits is often cited as one reason why they are not taken up. Another is that the elderly are often reluctant to claim meanstested benefits, seen by many as demeaning handouts. The charity, which conducted its survey with British Gas, called for greater state efforts to reach those who need help. 'Each year over 25,000 older people lose their lives to a preventable cold-related illness,' said Anna Pearson of Help the Aged. "The Government is not doing nearly enough to end fuel poverty. It has a potential jackpot of £4.5billion waiting for older people, but it dangles this vital cash behind a complex maze of means-tested benefits and, as a result, money continually fails to reach those who need it to survive." The survey, taken by ICM among 1,171 over-60s last month, indicated that more than 2.5million of the country's 11million elderly live in one room because of the cost of heating their homes. Almost as many - 2.2 million - turn off their heating entirely at some times because of the cost. Around two million wear outdoor clothing indoors. The charity said benefit advice services were unhelpful, with one in three older people left with no idea how they can claim state aid. Pension credit tops up the income of a single person to £119.05 a week and a couple to £181.70. Most pensioners are also entitled to claim winter fuel payments. Those under 79 get between £100 and £200, depending on their circumstances, while those 80 or over get up to £300.

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Many can identify with the plight of the elderly in this report; but are too ashamed to speak out.