Read our 2024 Fuel Crisis Report to view our full findings and to find out how we propose to implement change.
The charity, which provides emergency help to people who can’t afford to top up their prepayment energy meter, says children’s lives are being blighted by fuel poverty, with no energy for heating, cooking, lighting or cleaning.
According to its annual Fuel Crisis Report, ‘Time for Change. Time for a Fairer Future’, nearly half (45%) of the people helped by Fuel Bank Foundation in the last 12 months have children at home, with young families (aged 18-35) most at risk of living in fuel crisis.
The report found that 15% of young families surveyed ran out of money to top up their meter daily, while 26% were already disconnected from their energy supply when they applied for an emergency fuel voucher from Fuel Bank.
More than 4.4 million children in the UK are being raised in poverty [2]. Fuel Bank’s report highlights that living in a cold, damp home can have serious effects on children’s physical and mental health, as well as impair their learning at school. One in four (28%) children who live in cold homes are at risk of developing multiple mental health conditions, such as anxiety and depression [1].
Furthermore, it’s estimated that 1.7 million school days are missed across Europe each year due to illnesses associated with damp and mould, with rates among UK children 80% higher than the European average [1].
Matthew Cole, head of Fuel Bank Foundation, said:
We often think of fuel poverty as something that mainly affects the elderly, but it’s a blight on the lives of people of all ages, from young children to pensioners. Our latest research shows that by ignoring the issue of cold homes, we are preventing children from achieving their potential and consequently trapping them into lifelong poverty. Absenteeism from school is a big issue. As well as being off sick due to damp and mould related illnesses, children are refusing to go to school because they are being bullied, shunned or shamed because their clothes smell or they haven’t been able to have a bath or shower. Without good health or a good education, what chance have these children got of pulling themselves out of poverty when they grow up?
Leanne Gough is the family engagement officer at Parc Primary School, in Cwmparc, a small village in South Wales. The school, which is one of Fuel Bank’s 800 referral partners and one of several in South Wales, has 230 pupils, of which 160 are classed as vulnerable, with a three-year average of around 35% free school meals pupils.
Leanne has seen firsthand the financial pressure families are currently under and the impact fuel poverty has on children.
“This is quite a deprived area, with high levels of social housing,” she said. “We have a lot of families coming to us for help or referred to us from other organisations because they don’t have money for food or fuel. A lot of the time they are having to choose between heating or eating because they can’t afford to do both.
It’s heartbreaking to see the effect this has on children. As well as the physical and mental impact, from an educational perspective they are disadvantaged too, as they can’t do the online learning and homework at home because they don’t have internet access. Parents are doing their best, but it just feels never ending.
As well as the impact on individual lives, it is estimated that cold homes cost the UK economy tens of billions of pounds every year, through costs incurred by the NHS, mental health services, care costs and the lost economic contributions of people off sick [1].
Matthew said: “Adults living in cold homes are becoming too ill to work, and losing access to heat and power makes it all the more difficult for them to do what they need to do to improve their situations.
“Allowing families to live in such Dickensian conditions is morally abhorrent, not to mention economically irresponsible. Unless we start focusing on prevention now, the cycle will repeat itself and potentially worsen when today’s children grow into adults.
Fuel Bank has seen a 34 per cent increase in demand for help in the last 12 months, and while we know our support makes a difference to people’s lives, it’s only a temporary fix. We must come up with a long-term plan to end fuel crisis once and for all.
Within the report, Fuel Bank Foundation makes several recommendations for the Government, the energy regulator and the energy sector to tackle fuel poverty, including making energy more affordable, providing more financial support and better protection for people who prepay, and upgrading the UK’s housing stock so that everyone has a good quality home that is inexpensive to heat.
Matthew added:
With collaborative action, it is entirely possible to shield the people we support from the dangers of being forced to live in cold, damp and dark homes this winter and beyond.
Other findings from the report:
References:
1. https://www.instituteofhealthequity.org/in-the-news/press-releases- and-briefings-/left-out-in-the-cold-the-hidden-impact-of-cold- homes#
2. https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/child-poverty-statistics-causes-and-the-uks-policy-response/
