No child should be left in the cold by rising fuel bills

LBG is home sick today: she has a temperature, a barking cough and has lost her voice. It’s awful to hear her squeak. I know what it’s like because I get laryngitis often enough. But when it’s three-year-old, your three-year-old it’s worse. So we are staying at home. I’m keeping her hydrated, dosing her with Calpol and Nurofen (following medical advice obviously) and have whacked on the heating to keep her warm. Because I can do that without thinking.

There are others who don’t think about the heating too, but it’s more because they can’t afford to put it on. Even when their three-year-old is sick, it’s not an option:

“I worry I can’t put the heating on like everybody else can,” says Ness, mum to Joe, five, and Wesley, six. “The house gets cold. If Joe gets sick or I get sick the asthma flares up.”

It’s unbearable to think that, in a country such as ours where people are trying NOT to claim their Winter Fuel Allowance because they do not need it, there are children in such severe poverty that their parents cannot afford to heat their homes. Surely the Big Bad Energy companies and the Government, can find a little leftover Christmas Spirit and make a big difference to little people’s lives?

Add your voice to our calls:

• Energy companies must give the poorest families with children under five in the UK the Warm Home Discount (a payment of £120 a year). Families with young children who are on low incomes should get this as a priority – just like other vulnerable people, like those on pension credit.
• Energy companies must also make sure the poorest families get the cheaper tariffs. It’s not right that poorer families often pay more for their energy because they can’t get the best deals.
• The government needs to do more too, helping families insulate their homes and make them more energy efficient, reducing bills so they can afford to keep warm.
• The government must also recognise that boosting the incomes of the poorest families is still crucial to its fuel-poverty strategy.

 

Please help add your voice to the Campaign and sign the petition. Take Action with Save the Children. Thank you