Fuel plays an increasing role in independent living budgets, report says

The cost of heating one's flat in an independent living scheme has gone up, and some charities worry that as winter approaches, old age pensioners may be facing difficult choices between their health and their hearth.


Age Concern says that reports over the past five years have demonstrated a continuous increase in the price of heating older people's homes, with the less affluent spending 40 percent of their income on food and fuel, after housing costs.


"Shockingly‚ the report finds that while poorer pensioners are spending more of their available income on energy‚ they are - at the same time - reducing the amount of energy they buy," said Andrew Harrop, Age Concern head of public policy.

"[It] is a warning to policy makers and others that vulnerable older people could be putting their health at risk in winter just to cut costs."


For pensioners, steps by council governments to reduce the tax levy could reduce some of the burden, reported the Times in London. People receiving government cheques currently put nearly twice as much of their income towards council taxes as those in other demographics.


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