Three in four pensioners are living in a cold home

In the warmer months we are £120-150 a month. Colder months we go up to £400 a month. This is for gas and electricity. We are with Octopus.

Two bedroomed 1930's end of terrace in greater London. I pay £85 pound a month for gas And roughly £75 for electricity. I have the heating on as I refuse to be cold, it is on a timer and sometimes I override it when it is very cold.

No apology necessary Monica - I willingly joined in to give others an idea of the steps we’d taken to keep our bill so low without being cold all the time!

I have friends who spend a lot more and aren’t interested in making savings (can’t be arsed, said one) so each to their own eh?

Silverbrook This news item was a classic example of someone doing some research, which states quite carefully what its sample was and what group of people they are talking about and a newspaper then sets a reporter on it, who skims the text, ignores the provisos and picks up the line that says 'three out of four of those in our sample suffered cold this winter and ignores the rest.

A bit as if GNHQ decided to ask GN members about how they accessed GN and what devices they used and started a paragraph of the ensuing report saying something like needless to say, all GN members over 50 had access to the internet in some form

Some reporter would quickly scan the report and then write that everyone over 50 has access to the internet in some form, which of course is not what the report said.

It is this kind of loose reporting without details that get statistics such a bad name. As someone who in the past has generated carefully calculated and validated figures - and also checks the basis of the statistics they use. Sloppy reporting like this is exasperating.

I do understand what you are saying but it was AgeUK who lit the fire when they published this which is what the MSM have picked up on:

www.ageuk.org.uk/latest-press/articles/three-in-four-pensioners-admitted-they-were-cold-in-their-own-homes-in-january/

Three in four pensioners admitted they were cold in their own homes in January

Published on 18 February 2025 10:25 AM

New research for the Charity Age UK has revealed that 3 in 4 (75% - equivalent to 9.1 million) aged 66 and over said that their homes were colder than they would like them to be some, most of or all of the time.

Has they asked me the closed question:

Are you sometimes cold in your home?
Sometimes|Most of the time|All of the time - ...

I would have to answer Sometimes because, as I said, I don't heat my home overnight and I don't heat my home when I'm not there. Therefore, it follows that when I get up in the morning, I might feel cold until I had done something about it. Similarly, when I get home.

If the question were phrased:

Are you sometimes cold in your home because you cannot afford to pay more for heating?
Sometimes|Most of the time|All of the time - ...

then it would be clear that we are talking about different levels of fuel poverty.

Without access to the survey and the exact questions asked it looks like hasty generalisation.

I can see why AgeUK did this. They wanted publicity for the petition they were about to deliver to Downing Street and while I applaud the work that Age UK does, I don't like anything that suggests that most pensioners are in need of support because it simply isn't true.

Any case which is presented like this can have the opposite of the intended effect because it exaggerates the problem and stretches credulity when considered alongside other data and news stories.

It's why I don't take part in YouGov surveys or any survey that asks ambiguous questions. Sometimes I have agreed to participate in a survey and then part way have cancelled and withdrawn my consent because I have asked for clarification on a question and the survey taker unable to explain says - I'll just put xyz. No!

There is no reference to the difference in Household income between couples and those who live alone e.g. Widowers. and whilst singles will need less for hot water for baths/showers/laundry etcetera, it will cost the same for heating their home regardless of how many live in the house. My own DH's private pension died with him. leaving me with only my "old" state pension which is much reduced as my employer put me on the reduced Married Women's contributions the day I got married and another employer paid me below the NI threshold compensating me with a generous "traveling expenses" cheque once a month
.
I'm another who just misses out on Pension credit. If I had not already downsized from our family home to a modern small flat I would be in penury

We’ve a 3 bedroomed Victorian end terrace with cellar and have the heating on over winter when we’re in from getting up till bedtime, around 16 degrees going up to 19 in the evening, which we find just right. We pay £150 a month for gas and electricity year round and are well in credit. At the moment our bills are around £240, but obviously they’re much lower in the warmer months. Years ago we lived in a mid terrace and that took much less heating.

This is the first day for months that we haven’t felt the need to switch the heating on at all - perhaps Spring’s on its way?

Regardless of where the poll figures came from the cost of heating a house is a little irrelevant. 2 people on a good
retirement pension and a healthy bank account are very
much cushioned against the recent steep rise in energy prices.

Those on low income , be they 20 or 80 years old have to make hard decisions on where there money is spent.
Heating or eating springs to mind.

I was careful when I asked my original question not to ask about income. In fact I consciously didn't ask, not just because that would be an invasion of privacy, but that some people were giving the size o ftheir property and the figures puzzled me.

Someone somewhere said something about a 1 bed flat and paying £350 a month given that is a third more than I pay for a much larger house, I was left wondering why anyone in a small property was paying so much. Were they ahving to use oil or calor gas for heating.

I can remember years ago when I was working our departmental secretary was complaining about huge energy bills and I was again puzzled because they, again were bigger than mine, even though I had a alrger house. t turned out that she and her husband had some rare birds that they loved and these had to be kept warm. As a result their heating was on 24/7 and the thermostat was set at 21. High heating bill explained!

Your points about the way the questions were asked are the ones I have been making from the start, Silverbrooks. I don't think this is sloppy journalism so much as twisting the truth.

There is a lamentably weak grasp of the difference between journalistic articles and research, and I am convinced that this is why the media are happy to push the idea that Media Studies is an inferior subject - they can get away with their propaganda so much better when people are incapable of seeing what they are up to.

I don’t believe this statistic for one minute.

Baloney!
It’s been a very mild winter. I have been able to keep warm, pay my bills and feed 2 cats and a dog.
My total income is just over the Pension Credit limit as I have a small work pension so I now pay income tax. Any pensioner living off less is entitled to more state help and does not need to go hungry or feel cold.

Maybe in your neck of the woods but where I live, we had a very poor summer and it's been a long grey, cold winter.

Bridie22 My experiencew as well.

Another smug comment.

There are lots of pensioners struggling to keep their homes warm on very low incomes.

Millie22

Another smug comment.

There are lots of pensioners struggling to keep their homes warm on very low incomes.

True, just as lots of young people struggle on low incomes.

What’s the answer? Higher benefits? Government subsidies for everyone’s bills? Caps on profits for suppliers?

Energy companies were privatised by Thatcher (don’t tell Sid) so this was inevitable. Profit before people was her driver, and that of similar governments since. We can reverse that and have to listen to yet more moaning from shareholders and free market supporters or accept that profits for shareholders by definition equates to hardship for ordinary people.

We can’t have a both ways - what do people want?