Cold blast of reality

After too many months of cold weather and dark nights, summer seems to have finally arrived. But, as Ruth Patrick points out, winter will be back all too soon and it is vital to spend some of the summer considering the on-going issue of fuel poverty and disabled people if we’re not to see again thousands struggling to afford to heat their homes

Early on in New Labour’s reign, a system of Winter Fuel Payments (WFP) was introduced for those aged 60 and over. The value of these payments has increased steadily and last year they were worth between £125 and £400, depending on age and household circumstances. All households with an elderly member receive a WFP, regardless of income. Thus, entitlement to a WFP encompasses the retired millionaire, the expat living in Spain, and the pensioner struggling to make ends meet on the poverty line.

It has long been argued by the disabled community that these payments should be extended to include those disabled people in receipt of high-level Disability Living Allowance (DLA) due to mobility impairments. In recent research by the Leonard Cheshire charity, disabled people’s particular vulnerability to fuel poverty was highlighted alongside the dangerous impact of such poverty where the cold aggravates individuals’ impairments. Receiving a WFP could help prevent disabled people from suffering from fuel poverty and would ensure that vulnerable people are not consigned to a truly bleak winter.

However, the Government remains insistent that there is no rationale for extending WFPs to disabled people, arguing that they already receive help with the extra costs associated with their impairment(s) via the system of disability benefits. The ignorance this demonstrates of the well-documented links between disability and poverty is worrying and suggestive of a Government out of touch with the reality of life for many disabled people.

What is required is for the WFP systems to be extended to encompass disabled people on high-level DLA. The only reasonable alternative would be to entirely overhaul the system of disability benefits to create a situation where the benefits actually do cover all the extra costs associated with living with impairment.

The UK Government has a legal duty to eliminate fuel poverty amongst vulnerable households by 2010. This is simply not going to happen unless the Government acts now to ensure that disabled people can afford to adequately heat their own homes. Disabled people need to voice their views on this issue and add weight to campaigns currently running such as the National Right to Fuel Campaign and the End Fuel Poverty Coalition. It is definitely worth taking some time out from sunbathing to campaign for the rights of all disabled people to keep warm this winter.

• For more information, see the National Right to Fuel Campaign www.righttofuel.org.uk

••There is also a facebook group: End Fuel Poverty Coalition