Fuel Poverty
August 11, 2008 at 2:18 am
With oil and gas prices at an all time high, around 4.5 million people (that is an estimated 2.5 million households) are considered to be suffering from ‘fuel poverty’. A person enters this category when 10% or more of their income goes toward gas and electricity bills. Many people – for example the elderly, couples with children, and single parents – must then choose between heating or eating, as they cannot afford to pay for both fuel and food. The elderly – who count for over half of those in fuel poverty – are more susceptible to cold-related illnesses (for example, influenza, hypothermia and frostbite). Indeed, it was said last year “10 elderly [people] could die per hour” because of extremely cold conditions across the United Kingdom.
Following the publication of these fuel poverty facts and statistics, The Guardian newspaper stated:
“There is an obligation now on all energy companies to help their customers cut their fuel bills by insulation and other measures as well”.
Many schemes take the form of a benefit, i.e. an allowance of money. The Defra website details a number of organisations and initiatives pertaining to fuel poverty, such as Warm Home Schemes (for inhabitants of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales) and individual grants for economical installations such as cavity-insulation and central-heating.
In addition to well-known charitable organisations that are already striving to improve living-conditions for the elderly (such as Age Concern, Help the Aged and the Department for Work and Pensions), developments in the media regarding the recent hike in fuel prices have pressured UK suppliers into making concessions intended to help ease the resulting financial burden on their customers.
Whichever possible solution you choose to explore, if you are struggling to pay your energy provider (and particularly if this is to the detriment of your health and well-being), then it is vitally important that you seek some form of financial assistance. Meanwhile we can only hope that, once the relevant schemes and Trusts are fully operational, we will finally begin to see a decline in fuel poverty statistics.
Gas prices set to explode
August 1, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Gas prices, yet again, are set to increase. This time, however, that increase is monumental: over the next two years or so British Gas customers can anticipate a rise of between 60 and 70%. Centrica, who own British Gas, have said that the “annual gas bills could rise from around £600 a household to more than £1,000″. Other well-known energy providers are predicted to follow suit with a hike of 30 to 40%; for instance, EDF Energy have recently raised the cost of their fuel to £100 per month, which will constitute an average increase of £331 per household per annum.
The usual culprits – the escalating cost of global oil, competition from overseas, and wholesale gas and electricity premiums – are partially to blame for this bleak forecast. Overwhelmingly, however, the UK’s reliance upon imported oil coupled with the continuing decline of this essential commodity has put gas suppliers in a precarious position.
What is more, these developments look set to plunge a further three million pensioners into fuel poverty. Adding insult to injury, it would seem that the British populace has been given short shrift compared with other countries: in the US, for example, the price of gas is considerably cheaper, as “federal tax on gas is approximately 18 cents a gallon” (in stark contrast to the United Kingdom’s 128.8p per litre). Even without tax, the UK still has “the tenth highest gas prices” in Europe. Surprisingly, fuel poverty is almost unheard-of in Scandinavia, a country far colder than the UK. Such disparities beg the question: what is our government going to do?
The following statement, from Energywatch, emphasises how grave this situation may become if current circumstances do not change:
“These increases are eye-watering and horrendous, but this isn’t the end of it. We are entering a new era of consumers being hard-wired into higher prices.”
