‘I’m a pensioner – I haven’t turned my heating on for two years to cut costs’
Pensioners across the country claim soaring energy costs are making it more and more difficult to afford essential items, with some forced to keep the heating turned off this winter.
Average energy bills are set to rise by 1.2 per cent to £1,738 a year for typical households from January, after the regulator Ofgem increased its price cap last week.
One pensioner told i that she has not turned her heating on for two years to cut back on her “enormous” bills, despite being in receipt of the £300 winter fuel allowance.
“The bills are so enormous if you use electricity and gas that the winter fuel allowance is really a drop in the ocean,” Sheila Correll, 81, from Horncastle in Lincolnshire told i.
“I don’t use the central heating at all. I am paying £100 a month now and I haven’t even got any heating on.
“I have a tiny little heater which I use just before I go to bed. In the kitchen, I rely on the cooker. That keeps the kitchen warmer, but it’s still really cold.”
Ms Correll said that she has also had to “cut back spending” on other essential needs.
She added: “I cut the size of my meals to half of what they were. I don’t have a washing machine anymore – I wash by hand. And I use as little electricity as possible.”
Ms Correll added that she goes on daily runs and long walks, which help her stay warm. “Unless you keep moving all the time, you can’t keep warm,” she said.
Some 10 million pensioners are set to be stripped of their winter fuel allowance – a payment of up to £300 which helps retirees cover their heating expenses.
Up to 100,000 pensioners may be pushed into poverty over the next five years as a result of the policy, a Government report revealed earlier this month.
Sir Keir Starmer has insisted cutting winter fuel payments to address the Treasury’s tight budget “makes sense” because “the allowance goes to everyone [including many] who don’t need it because they’re relatively wealthy”.
Responding to Labour’s refusal to reverse the policy, Ms Correll said: “The Government doesn’t give a monkey’s about pensioners.
“They have no feeling toward pensioners whatsoever and it’s disgraceful, because pensioners worked all our lives, we paid taxes, we paid insurance, just to end up with a Government who couldn’t care less.
“The first thing it did was attack pensioners and it won’t backtrack. They are so cold and hard-hearted.
“But how can pensioners fight back? We can’t go on strike. We are absolutely reliant on the Government’s help.”
Michael Leach, 82, from Eastbourne, East Sussex, will not be receiving the winter fuel payment this winter, despite having chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) – a potentially life-threatening lung condition that leads to a shortness of breath, persistent coughs and chest infections.
Mr Leach told i: “It started with asthma when I was a young boy and it was not treated for a long time, so I ended up with COPD.
“COPD is uncurable. You can treat it, with inhalers, for example, but you need to breathe warm air, otherwise you get short of breath. You can get bronchitis or, worst still, you can die from COPD.”
At least 20,000 deaths in the UK each year are linked to COPD, official figures show.
Mr Leach told i that he has only turned the heating on just “a couple of times” this year to save money, but is concerned that breathing cold air will worsen his condition and make him dependent on an oxygen tank.
“I’m 82 now and it’d be nice to see a bit more life,” he said. “But I don’t want to get my breathing to get that bad that I need an oxygen tank, so I’m forced to wear more clothing in the house – two coats and blankets over my knee and the top part of my body.”
“Now energy prices are going up and most of the time I’ll have to sit in the cold,” Mr Leach added.
“It seems that Mr Starmer thinks that anyone who is not claiming pension credit is rich – wrong.
“Occasionally, at the end of the month, I’m left with £5 in the bank. I have no savings – literally zero savings. I wouldn’t call that being rich.
“People have actually loaned me money. My sister paid my share of my mum’s funeral and my car insurance. Another friend puts money in the bank account for me.
“I have to pay that back to them somehow and some time. I don’t think there’s any politician who can live on what most pensioners live on.
“I think it is totally unfair. Pensioners are the first people they can knock on the head because we can’t go on strike – we can’t affect the workplace.
“It’s so much of a battle when you get older and this is what stresses people out.”
Dennis Reed, director of the Silver Voices charity for senior citizens, said: “The cold weather is already playing havoc with the health of older people on low incomes.
“We know of many pensioners with serious health conditions which they know will be made worse by the freezing weather, but they still cannot afford to switch on their heating.
“I have asked for an urgent meeting with the DWP Secretary Liz Kendall to plead the case for emergency payouts to compensate for the loss of the winter fuel support. No reply has yet been received.”
Almost 11 million pensioners in 7.6 million households in England and Wales received the winter fuel allowance last winter.
This winter, the payment will be stripped from all but the poorest pensioners, such as those in receipt of pension credit and other means-tested benefits, dropping the estimated number of recipients to 1.5 million.
Defending the policy, Starmer told BBC Radio Merseyside: “Without the change that we’re putting in place at the moment, the allowance goes to everyone, whether they need it or not, and therefore there are many who don’t need it because they’re relatively wealthy.
“And I think most people would say that doesn’t make sense, when you’ve got a really, really, difficult, tight budget – we’ve got to deliver for our NHS, for our schools, we’ve got to make sure that we’ve got public services that people can rely on, including, of course, pensioners.
“So it makes sense to make the change.”
A Government spokesperson said: “We are committed to supporting pensioners – with millions set to see their state pension rise by up to £1,900 this parliament through our commitment to the Triple Lock.
“Over a million pensioners will still receive the Winter Fuel Payment, and our drive to boost Pension Credit take up has already seen a 152 per cent increase in claims. Many others will also benefit from the £150 Warm Home Discount and Cold Weather Payments to help this winter, while our extension of the Household Support Fund will help with the cost of food, heating and bills.”
