Three in four pensioners are living in a cold home

madmeg How big is your house? We live in a large 4 bedroomed Listed house built in 1468, total area over 2,600 square feet. Our fuel bills are only £250 a month.

We have 2 central heating boilers and rely on those alone for our heating. Our house is always warm and comfortable.

My fuel bills during 2023 were £200 a month and were just about right overall. During 2024 the direct debit rose to £295 and the latest bill was £380 for the month and I was £350 "in arrears" for the previous 6 months. The new payment is £425 a month.

We paid out £12k in November for a new roof, complete with 3 times the previous level of insulation. Sadly we had to change the gas fire a few months ago in our breakfast room (where we live during the day) to an electric one which eats tenners. New regs on gas fires mean we couldn't replace it with another.

Fortunately we are not destitute but it looks like this year's gas and electric will total over £4,000. I am sitting right now in my winter puffa coat.

This morning I went to our local u3a speaker meeting and talked with several others who said they had only gone to get warm cos they couldn't afford to heat their homes. They were all sitting with their coats on.

Silverbrook my new payment of £425 a month is almost exactly 50/50 gas and electric. The only gas we have is for central heating but despite being a 4-bed house has the radiators turned very low in 4 rooms and all have thermostatic controls.

On top of that I am still suffering from cold following my radiotherapy treatment last year and DH has just been diagnosed with a broken vertebrae. Even with all that cost I am not as warm as I would like to be.

I think they do. I’ve seen them. My DH wears a short sleeve t shirt instead.

Do men wear vests these days, though?

woodenspoon

I still wear thermal vests MayBee. M&S do sell loads in the winter. They have to restock I was told.

Vests are worn in this house too. The M&S ones are lovely and fine, I don't feel all overdressed and bundled up.

The quotes from the report don’t tell us enough and are picked deliberately to be emotive but push credibility:

e.g. Amanda, 69, commented: “It'll be a case of sitting in my dressing gown with my duvet over me. My monthly gas payment covers my gas cooker, I can't afford to run my cooker and my heating.”

69 isn’t that old in terms of being of a pensioner. I am also 69. I cook with electricity which is more expensive than gas. Three meals a day usually. My electricity bill for 6 January to 5 February was £42. Obviously this includes all other electrical appliances: TV, washing machine, tumble dryer, fridge, freezer etc. If I said even half was for cooking, it’s only £5 a week.

As of July 2023, prepayment charges were brought into line with direct debit costs so that isn’t an explanation for Amanda’s costs.

As. no single pensioner should have an income of less than £218.15 pw, frankly, it’s hard to believe what I am reading in this report.

woodenspoon

I still wear thermal vests MayBee. M&S do sell loads in the winter. They have to restock I was told.

I bought several thermal items of clothing a few years ago but couldn’t wear them as they make me itch so I wear cotton layers.

I still wear thermal vests MayBee. M&S do sell loads in the winter. They have to restock I was told.

Problem with the D Express report is that all "9 million" people who say they feel cold at home are presented as

"Desperate pensioners say they are being
forced to stay in bed to keep warm or choose between heating and using the oven.*"

I’ve carried hot water bottles around with me every winter for years. Currently dog sitting at my daughters with my hottie. I always find my son and daughters homes cold when I sit for them. I don’t feel hard done by in some way because I use hot water bottles. My next door neighbour is very thin and frail and she has some sort of heated throw on her sofa. I did offer her some of my fleeces as I have far too many, as she only seems to wear thin cardigans but she didn’t want one. I’ve never got over the fact that people no longer wear vests.

Thats the relevant report at last, Allira.

Problem is definite the definition of "colder than you would like them to be" in terms of identifying being at risk and lack of information on how much of the house you are heating and all the other factors.

If asked the question "are you colder than you would like to be at home" my answer would be "yes", but I'm not "at risk".
(I keep my heating on at 18 in the day and 19 in the evening and pile on the HWB and fleeces)

.

many younger people live in cold homes too, because they just can't afford to heat house much due to all bills rising.

Wearing clever layers, using blankets and hot water bottles or grain microwavable pouches, etc, can help hugely.

Age UK has now uploaded the report on which this newpaper piece is based - as Allira has already linked to, Again:

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

Met Office records show that January 2025 was slightly cooler than average. Some extracts:

www.metoffice.gov.uk/blog/2025/sunny-and-cool-january-kicks-off-the-new-year

Thanks largely to an early month cold period, the UK’s January average mean temperature was 3°C, which is 0.9°C lower than the current long-term average.

January 2025 was the fifth sunniest on record for the UK, though temperatures were subdued compared to average, according to provisional Met Office statistics.

The month had a typical mix of UK winter weather conditions, with rain, snow and a named storm, but also some clear, crisp winter sunshine, especially for those in the north.

We chiefly saw this as a result of frequent high pressure over the UK, bringing clear skies for many but also below average temperatures with little cloud to trap any warmth near the surface.

So less than 1 degree colder than average.

But … the energy price cap in January 2024 was £1,928, April 2024 £1,690, July 2024 £1,568, October 2024 £1,717 and January 2025 1,738. In other words, the cost of energy for an average 2-3 person household has come down by £190 per year since January 2024.

Since last summer, Martin Lewis has been shouting from the rooftops, urging people to fix their energy prices. Anybody who took his advice will have been protected from the rises in October 2024 and January 2025 so paying at a rate of £360 per year less than January 2024 prices.

Surely that’s enough to compensate for a slighly colder January?

However, I know plenty of people who refuse to do this, refuse to fix and refuse to switch suppliers to get a better deal.

I’ve offered my Octopus “refer a friend” discount to people who I think might need a bit of help, even offering them my half of the shared £100 - so they would get better unit prices plus a £100 bonus but they doggedly stick with the same supplier they have had since 1975 knowing that they are paying more than they need to.

(I understand that not everyone is on grid and pay for fuel in this way.)

The thing that I really take isue with in the Age UK report is this:

Doing nothing would however be completely unacceptable in the face of the evidence we are presenting today. Government spokespeople continue to assert that poor pensioners are being protected but that is simply not credible when there are still 700,000 pensioner households who are eligible for Pension Credit but not receiving it …

They won’t receive it unless they claim it! I don’t know what else can be done to persuade them to do so.

I suspect that 700,000 is exaggerated, extrapolated from a survey of 25,000 households fewer than 8,000 of whom were pensioners.

www.gov.uk/government/statistics/income-related-benefits-estimates-of-take-up-financial-year-ending-2023/income-related-benefits-estimates-of-take-up-financial-year-ending-2023

freeinsulationgrant.co.uk. They still do this.

Thanks Oreo

Woodenspoon Our council in Somerset run open days (in local church halls etc) where you can get information and advice about making your home warmer, grants etc. I found it advertised in the local council newspaper thingy they put through front doors so maybe there's something like it available throughout the country.

Yes Oreo I thought you could. Mum was not impoverished but she got help with loft insulation and her tank being lagged. I feel certain Age Concern could point the way.

I agree Churchview that excessive heat and tee shirt wearing and bare feet is ridiculous.

woodenspoon I think you can still get help with those things.

You used to be able to get somebody around from the council to advise on lagging on tanks, loft insulation etc and then they’d advise of grants available. I don’t know if they still offer that. Also I think British Gas did something similar. I remember my mum did this, she was in her own owned home.

Oreo

Churchview

I noticed the data on which that article was based included people who said their house was cold 'some of the time'. Well everyone's house is cold some of the time. I don't have the heating on in the day because I'm doing housework so it's cold then, or when I get home from being out. Then I light the fire and it's warm in the evenings.

If I sit down during the day I have a hot water bottle and a blanket rather than heat the house.

It’s a bit sad to think that pensioners are sitting with blankets and hot waterbottles for when they sit down to relax!

Not for me it isn't Oreo, it just seems prudent and sensible. Why waste heating the whole house when I can be snug for the cost of a boiled kettle.

I go to the homes of friends and relations and there they are in t shirt and bare feet with the heating blazing. Years ago people would think they were mad to waste money and energy that way.

I have to watch Mum like a hawk to make sure the heating is on at around 19 as like many old people with not much money she will be turning it down the whole time.

I think the question was far more likely to have been ‘ were you cold in your own home’.

Allira

Doodledog

GrannyGravy13

Whitewavemark2

3 out of 4?

Absolute balderdash.

I have just been onto Age UK website, and it’s saying exactly the same, 3 in 4 pensioners aged 66 and over were cold in January.

Much depends on how the question is put. Had the one in four who didn't say they were cold in January stayed indoors?

As WWM says, I don't know anyone who has 'been left shivering at home'.

As WWM says, I don't know anyone who has 'been left shivering at home'
Could that be because all your friends are affluent and middleclass with excellent pensions?

It could, but it isn't. I have friends in all sorts of circumstances.

Who knows (which is the trouble with unsubstantiated claims like that), but it's equally likely to be because the question was 'Were you cold in January?' which could be interpreted in a number of ways. It was flipping freezing outside.

Allira

Doodledog

GrannyGravy13

Whitewavemark2

3 out of 4?

Absolute balderdash.

I have just been onto Age UK website, and it’s saying exactly the same, 3 in 4 pensioners aged 66 and over were cold in January.

Much depends on how the question is put. Had the one in four who didn't say they were cold in January stayed indoors?

As WWM says, I don't know anyone who has 'been left shivering at home'.

As WWM says, I don't know anyone who has 'been left shivering at home'
Could that be because all your friends are affluent and middleclass with excellent pensions?

It's debatable whether I'm middle class (depends how it's defined), but I'm certainly nowhere near affluent. I do I have a small occupational pension, but it's not excellent. According to the government's stats, I'm in the lowest 20% of pensioners according to income. Nevertheless, I haven't shivered at home once this winter. My bills over the last three months have obviously been higher than average, but I'll still be in credit at the end of this month.

Doodledog

GrannyGravy13

Whitewavemark2

3 out of 4?

Absolute balderdash.

I have just been onto Age UK website, and it’s saying exactly the same, 3 in 4 pensioners aged 66 and over were cold in January.

Much depends on how the question is put. Had the one in four who didn't say they were cold in January stayed indoors?

As WWM says, I don't know anyone who has 'been left shivering at home'.

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.

For those pensioners on low to modest household incomes of £20,000 or less, a massive one in three (35%) said their home was too cold most or all of the time.

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

Our bill for January has been quite a shock.

Allira

Doodledog

GrannyGravy13

Whitewavemark2

3 out of 4?

Absolute balderdash.

I have just been onto Age UK website, and it’s saying exactly the same, 3 in 4 pensioners aged 66 and over were cold in January.

Much depends on how the question is put. Had the one in four who didn't say they were cold in January stayed indoors?

As WWM says, I don't know anyone who has 'been left shivering at home'.

As WWM says, I don't know anyone who has 'been left shivering at home'
Could that be because all your friends are affluent and middleclass with excellent pensions?

Yes of course it does🤬