We need help now to protect elderly from fuel poverty

THE elderly are caught up in a perfect storm this winter as fuel prices soar and pensions fail to keep up.

The Government must address the cost-of-living crisis for elderly citizens who are most vulnerable at this time of the year. Every winter, tens of thousands of pensioners die — often owing to respiratory illnesses caused by the colder weather.

With so many lives at stake, the Government must respond to this emergency. And today I am calling for urgent improvements to fuel support as part of a winter manifesto.

Even in a normal year, with the lowest state pension in the developed world, the costs of heating means that the UK’s elderly tend to succumb to bad weather in large numbers.

But this year is far from normal, partly due to people isolating, but also because of the sharp spike in heating bills.

Regulator Ofgem’s increase in the energy price cap in October has already hit many pensioners, and further hikes are in the pipeline.

Meanwhile, the meagre 3.1 pc increase in state pensions from April will leave more pensioners living on inadequate incomes.

The Government would do well to start with pension credit. Around four in ten people who are eligible are not receiving it. This is the lowest take-up rate of all means-tested benefits and reflects the reluctance of pensioners to claim extra help. They are often too proud and do not realise this is their right, not a handout.

The Department for Work and Pensions and HM Revenue and Customs could work together to identify those who are entitled to an increase in payments rather than waiting for people to claim. Calling pension credit a ‘state pension top-up’ and helping pensioners understand that the money is their right, with a national advertising campaign, is urgently required to raise awareness.

The benefit should be made available to more older people. In recent years, the eligibility criteria have been significantly tightened. Rather than being available to any household with one person aged over 60, pension credit will be paid only if both members of a couple were born before September 1955.

That means many pensioners who would previously have received extra help with their living costs are no longer able to do so.

Finally, winter fuel payments are lower than in 2009 after being reduced in 2011. Cold weather payments of £25 a week have not risen since 2008 and the warm homes discount of £140 a year has not increased for more than ten years.

All three should be increased for pensioners to reflect the huge rise in heating bills.