Matthew Cole, CEO of Fuel Bank Foundation, said:
“This week’s budget is a positive step forward in addressing some of the drivers that force people into fuel crisis and to seek help from Fuel Bank and it is encouraging to see some of our key policy requests being addressed in the announcements this week.
“Scrapping the two-child benefit cap will provide vital relief to children and their parents, with around 450,000 children lifted out of poverty. We estimate that approximately 11% of the people we help will benefit from this change. This is an important and positive step for families who have been pushed to the edge.
“It is important that the benefits that the to-be-scrapped ECO was designed to deliver are not lost. Thirty-seven per cent of the people we support live in poor-quality homes, and ECO has gone some way towards mitigating this. We mustn’t lose sight of the need to improve the energy efficiency of the UK’s poorest performing housing stock, after all, the cheapest unit of energy is the one you don’t use. The Warm Homes Plan and the equivalent interventions in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland must be used as vehicles to achieve the benefits that ECO was expected to deliver.
“Fuel Bank Foundation remains committed to helping people keep warm and safe and this year, we will help half a million people who prepay for their energy. We urge the Government to build on the Budget announcements and to ensure that crisis, targeted, same day support is available when families cannot afford to purchase the energy that they need to keep warm, safe and well. This is particularly needed this winter, prior to the Budget changes being implemented from April.”
