unable to eat regularly or could even be left at risk of death from the cold, as soaring energy bills are expected to eat up more than half of some household incomes. While households across the board will see a 40 to 47 per cent bill increases from April, considering the impact it would have on family budgets, the leading poverty charity found that there are huge variations. In the case of an average middle-income family, energy bills would amount to 6 per cent of their income, while for a low-income family, its 18 per cent on their earnings.
“Rising energy prices will affect us all but our analysis shows they have the potential to devastate the budgets of families on the lowest incomes. The government cannot stand by and allow the rising cost of living to knock people off their feet,” Katie Schmuecker, deputy director of policy and partnerships at the JRF, said.
She shared these views amid calls for ministers to intervene urgently in order to help vulnerable people whose lives could be at risk. Martin Lewis, one of UK’s most respected consumer campaigners and the founder of the consumer advice website Money Saving Expert, is of the view that billions of pounds should be set aside by the government to support millions of poorer households who are facing these “heat or eat” decisions.
“We absolutely know we need a substantial increase in the billions of pounds funding to vulnerable people, and people on low incomes, or it is not an exaggeration to say some will have to choose between heating or eating, and that is not appropriate in one of the world’s richest economies and a civilised nation,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “What we can’t get away from is we are going to need to put money into the system or we are going to have an absolute, not a relative, an absolute poverty crisis in this country, with people really being unable to eat or dying because of the cold.”
