Energy bills crisis: Plea for fuel poor families to get £593 in help

Bill Bullen said: "The question we were asking ourselves is, 'how much additional help do people need to get through this coming winter?'”

He added: “Obviously we know last winter the Government made a lot of money available and it helped a lot, but the money was not focused. What we are saying is it will be better off spending a similar amount of money, but for a smaller number of customers.

“It's very difficult to come up with a precise number, but we know that if we help to keep people warm in their own homes that it’s going to reduce the burden on the NHS going through next winter.”

The research heard from those who are self-rationing and self-disconnecting. They spoke to 51,205 financially vulnerable households over the last two winters – before and during the energy crisis.

Their analysis shows changes in energy consumption levels against the rising cost of energy to identify the exactly financial shortfall causing households to go without energy they need.

Responding to the study, Dr Brenda Boardman MBE from Oxford University. warned that fuel poverty is rife Britain at the moment.

She said: “What the government needs to do is provide each household that’s in fuel poverty, with at least a thousand pounds this winter in order for them to cope.

“They’ve suffering considerably over the last several years of austerity and price rises. They’re severely stretched at the moment. So, we need to give them more than they’ve had in the past.”

“We’ve got rampant inflation; we’ve got extremely expensive food and we’ve therefore got increasing poverty. And because it’s going on for so long, people are becoming less resilient. If they had a little money in the banks, they’ve used it up. They already have been to the loan shark and got a loan. We need to help them to make sure they can get through. At the moment disconnections are rising, in other words people who are on a pre-payment metre are not able to afford to keep in credit during the whole week.”

The study reveals that households experiencing the worst fuel poverty will need at least an extra £593 to afford the energy they need to maintain safe and healthy heat, based on expected £1,850 price cap on October 1.

However, the additional support required would rise to £797 if the price cap increased to £2,500 in the worst-case scenario.

One of Utilita’s customers, Kim Ratcliffe Rossendale in Lancashire said her family run out of money for energy one week before payday each month.

Kim praised the Power Up feature on the My Utilita app. She says it’s allowed her and her family to ‘survive’, as it allows her to top-up when she runs out of credit and needed to warm up her home.

She added: “To think of it going worse, how are we going to afford to eat food? Because even I’ve been to the community grocery for food because it’s the only way we could make the budget of the month spread. But again, do you tell anybody because it’s embarrassing isn’t it.”

“As a carer and somebody that doesn’t receive any benefits, apart from carers allowance. It’s really hard. When we first moved into the property, we are in it had a payment metre and I wanted it out. This was before this crisis, but I’m so glad that they didn’t. Because before it could be taken out, you’ve got to be in three months credit. As soon as this crisis hit, we were in the emergency credit.”

Utilita also highlighted that fuel poverty in England and Wales is affecting more households than the government and charities claim. Fuel poverty Charity, National Energy Action, estimated that 6.6 million households in England and Wales will be in fuel poverty from 1st July 2023 – almost double the 3.7 million households the government reported as being in fuel poverty last year.

According to the government’s ‘10% of income’ fuel metric and last year’s Office for National Statistics household income data, 33% of households in England and Wales are in fuel poverty today – that’s nine million or one in three.

Meanwhile, Utilita’s energy behaviour insights show that October 24 is the official ‘heating switch on day’ for most households in England and Wales but can be as early as mid-august in Scotland. The outside temperature trigger for home heating is 12.5 degrees Celsius.