On Friday 23rd August, the regulatory Ofgem announced its new energy price cap for the winter of 2024, with bills set to rise by an average of £149. This new cap will run from October 1st to December 31st - however, the word “cap” is disingenuous as there isn't a total cap on what you can pay for energy.
Your energy bill is still based on how much gas and electricity you use, because the Ofgem price cap just limits what you pay for each unit of gas and electricity you use. It also puts a cap on standing charges, which are fixed daily amount you must pay for energy. Confusing to say the least, and this confusion along with a new rise in energy bills will have many households wondering: what now?
Many of the households most afraid of this winter and wondering what to do now are Disabled households. To understand why, you need to put yourself in the shoes of someone either living with a disability or the person who cares for them.
Energy is essential to anyone with a disability, probably more essential to Disabled people than it is to most others. Why? Well, the physical and mental wellbeing of any Disabled person more often relies on the equipment they use daily to either move, transfer, sleep, eat or medicate. Equipment that is designed to keep them alive and to enhance their daily lives. Equipment that relies on energy.
Examples of this are numerous, but some include; fall alarms, additional fridges for use of medication that must be keep cold on constant charge, overnight and daily wheelchair charging, overnight and daily mobile hoist charging, washing machines constantly in use daily due to bladder & kidney dysfunctions, oxygen concentrators for multiple lung conditions requiring oxygen support, through floor lifts on constant charge, suction machines for tracheostomy blockages to prevent choking, Cpap or Bipap oxygen machines on all night and of course heating on constantly as many Disabled people cannot regulate body temperature.
A recent report from Marie Curie found that on average UK energy bills rose above £2,000 for the first time back in 2022 – meaning a person with a terminal illness would be paying as much as £3,500 a year for energy. The report also highlighted the fact that a terminally ill person’s energy bill can rise by 75% after their diagnosis. But perhaps most worrying of all is that according to the research round 150,000 people die at home in England and Wales each year from conditions that are commonly treated with medical devices. All sobering and sadly avoidable statistics in an era of growing fuel poverty.
The need to power essential items for health and mobility would not be a worry if we had any idea of what support or plans were in the pipeline from the new government to combat a seemingly out of control and greed afflicted energy industry. The Conservative government, however negative their attitudes towards Disabled people were, did begrudgingly attempt some sort of financial support with cost-of-living payments and by extending the Household support fund, but all these ended or will end this month.
The current Labour government have only been in power for a short while, but the need to get to grips with spiralling energy prices and to understand Disabled people's lives and energy requirements must be paramount. There is a palpable fear for the community right now, the fear of winter and unpayable bills is now part of a daily existence for people along with the fear of benefits being removed and being able to afford the basics of life.
So, will the new Government step up? Well, a glance at the Labour manifesto on energy and support gave us something and nothing. The words “Labour will switch on Great British Energy, a publicly-owned clean power company, to cut annual energy bills for good, paid for by a windfall tax on oil and gas giants, and we’ll insulate millions of homes – making families better off” doesn’t go far enough and doesn’t say enough. It doesn’t promise to crack down on utility firms who are still announcing record breaking profits, it doesn’t say anything about any short-term support to people struggling to pay their energy, and it doesn’t seem to want to understand the lives people live which is the baseline needed to put in place specific, tailored support.
What should be done? What can Labour do? Well, as a co-lead of a coalition called The Disability Poverty Campaign Group, the answers are obvious and workable. The first thing to do is work with Disabled people’s organisations like ours to understand the issues here. We work with the people involved and live the life. The second and perhaps most vital is to implement an energy social tariff. A social tariff is a discounted energy deal for qualifying low-income consumers, such as Disabled people and carers. A specifically targeted tariff would help those in fuel poverty but especially Disabled households where the energy usage is high. The previous government dropped this consultation and Labour must pick up the baton. A social tariff will not only support people financially struggling, but it will stop them making life altering decisions around the equipment they need just to survive.
Other ethical and financially manageable things to do are to extend the Energy Price Guarantee for Disabled households (until a social tariff is introduced) and to reinstate the Warm Home Discount for the 300,000 Disabled people who lost this vital support due to changes in eligibility criteria. A next step would be the permanent extension of the Household Support Fund. This is due to end this month, and it provides vital financial aid from local government to families struggling with the basics of life including heating. Without any help and with the frankly bizarre announcement of limiting the winter fuel payment, we will see a further degradation of living standards for families, especially Disabled families.
The DPCG are nearly four years old now, and our coalition is growing, but sadly so are the reports of poverty and Disabled people utterly dreading the winter months. The famous quote that "How a society treats its most vulnerable is always the measure of its humanity” should be echoing throughout Westminster this winter. Disabled people do not consume excess energy for recreational use, but to stay alive, to stay well.
We are allowing our most financially vulnerable to suffer because of indifference, because of a lack of understanding, because of greed. If Labour want to prove they are not the Tories of old, they cannot sit back and dither about what to do to stop people freezing in their homes. It is time for political will and political action to overrule shareholders and bonuses. It is time to deliver the support people need just to keep the heating on, and as we have told successive governments, time and time again, we are ready to assist with that planned support.