Rising fuel bills have left one in five British families struggling to afford to heat their homes, UK charity Save the Children has warned.

Among those who are still able to pay their bills 15 per cent have needed to scale back expenditure on other essential items such as clothing and food, the charity added.

Low-income families are predictably the worst hit, with 44 per cent of households living off under £15,000 a year reporting that they have difficulty making ends meet when they have to pay energy bills.

Save the Children said that the problem is compounded by the presence of pre-pay meters in the majority of low-income households as such meters are typically far more expensive than direct debit bills.

"We know that less well-off families are much more likely to use pre-pay meters, because it gives them the flexibility to plan a weekly budget," said charity spokesperson Phillipa Hunt. "So by charging more for using pre-pay meters, energy companies are in fact penalising those families and children who are least able to pay."

The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform estimated that around 1.2 million homes were living in fuel poverty in 2004.


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Author:  Joanne McCabe

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