DeBurgo, who relies on her state pension and a top-up Pension Credit, says her grocery bills have already almost doubled in the space of a month or so, with rising fuel costs even more worrying for her winter energy bills.
“I don’t want to end up, like a skeleton … eventually it’s going to have to stop. But whether I’ll be able to afford to eat by then, I don’t know,” he told CNN on the phone. interview.
The average UK household will see its annual energy bill rise to £3,549 (about $4,180) from October — an increase of £1,578 ($1,765), an 80% increase — after the country’s energy regulator raised the cap price last week. The price cap sets the maximum amount that energy suppliers can charge for each unit of energy and natural gas.
It is a crisis that should be at the forefront of government action. In contrast, however, outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson was largely absent, taking two vacations in less than a month. His critics have accused him of washing his hands of the energy crisis and deflecting responsibility for Russia’s war in Ukraine. “We also know that if we’re paying on our energy bills for Vladimir Putin’s shit, the people of Ukraine are paying with their blood,” Johnson said during an Aug. 24 visit to Kyiv.
Meanwhile, Downing Street said it was up to the next prime minister to bring forward any major new spending plans to support those suffering hardship. Two candidates, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, are currently battling it out to become the next leader of the Conservative Party and thus Prime Minister, with the results expected on 5 September. Only grassroots Conservative Party members, who represent less than 0.3% of the electorate, can vote in the contest. Demographics show that they are more likely to be white, male and middle class than the general British population.
And while research shows older people are more likely to vote Conservative, neither candidate has outlined a clear plan for how to tackle a cost-of-living crisis already being felt keenly by many in that age group.
Around 2 million pensioners were already living in poverty before the crisis, according to figures from the Center for Aging Better, a charity focused on improving the lives of older people, whose 2022 annual report found there were more than 200,000 more poor pensioners in 2021 compared to the previous year.
Around 44% of people who have reached the current UK pension age of 66 say it is their main source of income, according to figures from the Money and Pensions Service, which is funded by the Department for Work and Pensions. Most pensioners receive the basic state pension at £141.85 a week (about $170) or about £7,400 ($8,770) a year, with a newer pension introduced in 2016 of about £9,600 ($11,376) a year . The state pension rose by 3.1% in April, well below the rate of inflation at the time, at 9%. The next increase in the state pension will be next April.
“So these people were already struggling and now we’re in a situation where they’re going to be even worse off and many more will have fallen into poverty because of what’s happening,” said Morgan Vine, head of policy and advocacy at the charity Independent Age.
People who responded to a survey conducted by Independent Age in June and July painted a bleak picture of their daily lives. “I’ve turned off my heating, I don’t mop my floor as often. I don’t vacuum as often, I only do laundry if I really have to, I can’t bake with my grandchildren anymore, which breaks my heart,” she said. one, whose name was not given.
“Holidays are a thing of the past, social life is a thing of the past, if the costs keep going up I have no answers, I wouldn’t mind working but I’m 88 years old nobody wants me,” said another respondent, also anonymous.
That poverty worsens health conditions, with life expectancy also falling, according to the Center on Improving Aging report, which noted that the number of years older people spend in good health is also declining.
The NHS Confederation, a body representing leaders of the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), said this month that poverty was particularly fueling the creation of a “vicious cycle of healthcare need”, explaining that doctors can treat disease of a patient, but that if the condition — for example, a chest infection — is caused by cold, wet clothing, the cycle of infection will continue when the patient returns home.
It’s a concern that preoccupies DeBurgo. She’s not sure how she’ll afford to keep the heat on this winter to manage the symptoms associated with her fibromyalgia and arthritis.
“I think the government thinks we should either starve to death or freeze to death,” said DeBurgo, who noted that she has never voted Conservative and does not identify with a political party.
Vine echoes such concerns. “Obviously we’re incredibly concerned as the colder months approach because we think they’re going to lead to more older people dying,” he said.
Almost 10,000 people died in England and Wales in 2021 because their homes were too cold, according to the NHS.
In a statement last week, NHS leaders warned of a looming “humanitarian crisis” if the government did not tackle energy costs, saying fuel poverty would “inevitably lead to significant extra demand on already very fragile services” and could increase. the number of annual deaths related to cold houses;
Hospitals in Britain are already close to buckling under the pressure, with the elderly particularly vulnerable to service gaps that include high hospital waiting lists and staff shortages.
In August, the country saw two examples of such failures. A 90-year-old woman reportedly waited 40 hours for an ambulance after falling at her home in Cornwall, south-west England. Her son, Stephen Syms, posted on Facebook that she fell on Sunday afternoon and that the ambulance arrived on Tuesday afternoon and that his mother then waited another 20 hours to be seen by a doctor at the hospital. “The system is completely broken,” he told BBC Cornwall. CNN has approached Cornwall NHS Trust for comment.
And in another incident in Cornwall, an 87-year-old man waited in a makeshift shelter for 15 hours for an ambulance after breaking seven ribs and fracturing his pelvis, his daughter told the BBC.
Meanwhile, the Conservative leadership contest has been largely devoid of a heated debate around the full scale of the crisis facing the health service. But Truss pledged last week to inject £13 billion (about $15.4 billion) in funding to cover an NHS backlog of nearly 7 million people in adult social care if elected. Sunak has promised to tackle NHS waiting lists and said last month he would fine patients who missed doctors’ appointments, a proposal rejected by health leaders as unfair and costly.
Truss’ proposal to add more funding to social care was welcomed by many. But experts warn that this is a false dichotomy, as this investment is also badly needed in the NHS.
And while the energy crisis has garnered more attention from Conservative candidates, apart from ruling out a price freeze on energy costs, Truss and Sunak’s plans are still unclear.
Truss said tax cuts should be the main response to the bill surge and hinted last week that if elected she would quickly help pensioners with an emergency cost-of-living package, without elaborating. Sunak said he would find up to 10 billion pounds ($11.8 billion) to help people facing rising energy bills.
Meanwhile, the government announced that eligible households in England, Scotland and Wales will receive £400 (about $473) spread over six payments to help boost their fuel bills from October.
But many campaigners say that’s not enough.
Dennis Reed, director of the seniors group Silver Voices, told CNN that some of his organization’s Conservative Party members have left the party, noting a series of broken promises.
In April, the Conservative government broke an election pledge by suspending the so-called “triple lock” formula for a year — a measure that ensures basic state pensions will rise by either 2.5%, the rate of inflation or the average salary increase, whichever is greater.
“People are furious about it,” Reid said, adding that after working for 50 or 60 years and paying taxes, people expect to be able to live out their twilight years with dignity. “But that’s not the case now.”
The government has pledged to restore the triple-lock guarantee by next April, but many pensioners say the damage is already done.
“We may have short-term memory problems, but our long-term memories are strong, and I think that will bounce back in the Conservatives — whenever that happens,” Reid said.
