I attended an Age UK coffee morning to raise awareness of Cold Homes week.
Fuel Poverty affects half a million older households in the UK. It is often present in rural areas where the type of homes we have being more costly to heat, and many homes not being connected to mains gas and hence reliant on oil.
The Government has done a lot to help elderly people deal with heating bills during the Winter. Firstly, pensions have been "tripled locked", meaning the state pension goes up by at least 2.5% a year, and by more if earnings or inflation are rising quicker. There are Cold Weather payments when we have long periods of very cold weather, a Winter Fuel payment for elderly people, and various programmes available to support the cost of insulating your home and thus saving money on your electricity bill.
Furthermore, it is important we have a competitive energy market to ensure prices are as low as possible and large firms are not colluding to disadvantage customers. We now have an annual review by a regulator of the energy companies, have made it easier for new companies to enter the market, and forced the companies to simplify their bills and put people on the lowest tariff.
The fun part about the Coffee Morning was the impromptu chair exercise class I took part in with the elderly visitors and volunteers! We exercised away to Glen Miller's In the Mood and some Scottish Dance music!