Three in four pensioners are living in a cold home

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!

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?

I am amazed that some places I go to are so hot eg doctors’ surgery, local junior school, some shops. How do they pay their bills?

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'.

Silverbrooks You are right. Apologies. Sorry to get it muddled .

Your long post was very carefully thought out, as you say, it can't be the 3 out of 4 on the basis of the longer report,

And its also cant be 3 out of 4 in the second report as it refers only to pensioners living on under £20.000, but in reference to the £20.000 people it does use the line “3 out of 4”

which is presumably what the Express has taken up, a year late, since there are no subsequent AgeUK reports.

Bridie22

You must move in elite circles Monica, how fortunate you are, spare a thought for those less so.
I stated earlier I can easily count 10 people who are living in an inadequately heated condition, due to lack of sufficient income...not that they just choose to do so.

I said it included people with incomes below £20,000, but receiving benefits. I know their houses are warm because I visit regularly.

When I worked as a benefit advisor, I visited a lot of elderly people living in poor conditions, but often the problem was not excessively low incomes but a fear of spending, in case they ran into trouble later. The rainy day fund that isn't touched, not even on a rainy day. Quite often the unspent rainy day fund was too large for them to get benefits and when they died got distributed around the family.

There is a lot of help out there for pensioners on very low income, including insulation grants, heating grants and the like, but too often people do not know how to access them or do not want to, for a variety of reasons.

If I knew anyone who was in the situation you describe then I would direct them to Age UK to find out what help may be there for them and in many cases get them onto the means tested benefits that they are entitled to.

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.

Email from Eon...my energy bill will go up by £99, it has risen by £136 since October, lets hope we get some warm weather!

Keeping quiet , living in a large house doors not mean people have bags of money! I agree with Vice Versa. Old large houses are often very draughty, sometimes no double glazing !!

Whitewavemark2

So are most of GN members living in cold homes?

Do a straw poll of friends - how many do you know live in cold homes.

I know of no one.

None.

Whitewavemark2

3 out of 4?

Absolute balderdash.

I agree. While I didn't agree with thr general withdrawal of WFP, this is Express exaggeration at its finest.

Bridie22

What help keeping quiet?, as you also discovered regardless of what the government or media states, there isn't help for borderline income families, itsca constant juggling of priorities.

I don't want to go into my personal circumstances but you probably wouldn't want to swap places with me...

Granmarderby10

I don’t mean to be flippant or smug, but I personally would sacrifice most other things and go into debt if necessary to keep warm and fed.
Not a happy prospect, but everything else would go by the wayside. Being cold and hungry would be no life, it is an absolute essential.

Yes, this. I've never been a martyr and have no intention of being so.

Compared to some I feel quite well off.

It is about priorities yes, I haven't had a proper holiday for...well, since before Covid.

I don’t mean to be flippant or smug, but I personally would sacrifice most other things and go into debt if necessary to keep warm and fed.
Not a happy prospect, but everything else would go by the wayside. Being cold and hungry would be no life, it is an absolute essential.

What help keeping quiet?, as you also discovered regardless of what the government or media states, there isn't help for borderline income families, itsca constant juggling of priorities.

Wyllow3. Your two posts at 15:14 and 15:19 are still linking to the report dated 9 February 2024. The year is in the URL.

My income is well below £20 000 and despite making enquiries with Age UK they always tell me there is no help available. They even told me to claim disability benefit when there is nothing wrong with me.

I have my heating on twice a day every day and I'm still in credit. Yes, I had a new boiler installed and had no help with that either. I live in an old draughty house too.

It has been a consistently cold winter here in the north. It's hard to feel any sympathy with people who don't either get help or sort themselves out instead of reading discredited newspapers and getting swept up in media storms.

Bridie22

You must move in elite circles Monica, how fortunate you are, spare a thought for those less so.
I stated earlier I can easily count 10 people who are living in an inadequately heated condition, due to lack of sufficient income...not that they just choose to do so.

I think Monica was pointing out that surveys can be misleading depending what they are trying to show.. not that she was disbelieving your realities..Bridie

Parsley3

Wyllow3

I hate this kind of dishonesty in MSM.

All the Express had to say was, "based on a survey of pensioners with an income of under £20.000, 3 out of 4 report that....etc.

Me too. The attention grabbing headline has worked though and many people, unlike Wyllow3 won't look further that that. Choosing not to use your central heating at the expense of being miserable is not something that I would do, but I also layer up and that is just sensible and hardly a hardship to complain about.

Using an AgeUK report like that also discredits AgeUK.

The Express isn't doing the charity any favours to use partial information that has been carefully complied by the charity on behalf of the most vulnerable.

I only looked further because I thought, "3 out of 4 is too high" .
......so some of the readers will follow the Express Papers real intention to get people to believe an inaccurate "shock horror headline

and others will think, well, thats AgeUK being inaccurate. which is hardly fair or beneficial to the charity.

You must move in elite circles Monica, how fortunate you are, spare a thought for those less so.
I stated earlier I can easily count 10 people who are living in an inadequately heated condition, due to lack of sufficient income...not that they just choose to do so.

Wyllow3

I hate this kind of dishonesty in MSM.

All the Express had to say was, "based on a survey of pensioners with an income of under £20.000, 3 out of 4 report that....etc.

Me too. The attention grabbing headline has worked though and many people, unlike Wyllow3 won't look further that that. Choosing not to use your central heating at the expense of being miserable is not something that I would do, but I also layer up and that is just sensible and hardly a hardship to complain about.

I'll repeat the post here from which explains why the Express News report says 3 out of 4 - sorry to have caused confusion

Here is the 2025 report

www.ageuk.org.uk/latest-press/articles/2024/energy-crisis-is-still-causing-misery-for-the-poorest-pensioners-says-age-uk/

The "three out of four" figures are based on a specific group not all pensioners

The group is restricted to:

In a new report out today, Age UK warns that

older people living in a household with an income less than £20,000 per year and not in receipt of means tested benefits, have faced particularly steep challenges with managing through recent times

New research for the Charity revealed that for these older people, the cost of living crisis is far from over

so this is not to say that we should not address the crisis,

but to emphasis the Express new report is based on a survey of all pensioners not those with incomes under £20.000

Silverbrooks

There are around 13 million pensioners in the UK in around 9.4 million pensioner households.

In 2023/24, around a million pensioners paid tax at 40% or 45%. Some 2.7 million pensioners are expected to be paying at higher rates very soon due to fiscal drag so they must be close to the cusp now. That's over a quarter of pensioner households.

Logical deduction then that the other three-quarters of pensioner households, anyone on an income of less that £50,271 which in the 40% threshold is struggling. It's nonsense.

BTW that Age UK report is dated Feb 2024 not 2025.

Age UK’s new report, Cold at Home: How winter cost of living pressures continue to impact older people

www.ageuk.org.uk/siteassets/documents/reports-and-publications/reports-and-briefings/safe-at-home/cold-at-home-energy-and-col-report.pdf

Pensions increased by 6.7% in April 2024 while the energy price cap came down from £1,928 to £1,690 a reduction of £238. It has increased since to £1738 less than a £1 a week but it was possible to avoid it by fixing.

I am not suggesting that some people aren't struggling but it isn't 3 in 4 pensioners which would be 9.7 million of the total of around 13 million pensioners.

There is some confusion between 2 reports. And its my fault, sorry, as I gave them both in subsequent posts

That report is last years report, 2024. Its a good long and full one, lots of detail,

but

This years report, which is the one that the Express based the figures on, 9th Feb 2025, is this one

www.ageuk.org.uk/latest-press/articles/2024/energy-crisis-is-still-causing-misery-for-the-poorest-pensioners-says-age-uk/

Not just those on incomes under £20,000, but those with incomes under £20,000 and not in receipt of means tested benefits and that is a very different thing.

No one, I know, which includes people on incomes under £20,000 and receiving means tested benefits has gone cold this winter.

As someone who has been a market research manager, the one thing I know is that you need to see the exact question asked and exactly how the sample of respondents was selected before commenting on the results of a survey.

Given the right question and the right sample it could be proved that no pensioner in the UK has gone cold this winter.

keepingquiet

I still don't get it. Are people choosing to be cold? I know a couple of people who would rather be cold than pay their bills and I just don't understand it. They are not what I would call poor. Some live in large houses.

Maybe the heating systems are out of date, in which case why don't they get an upgrade- grants are available in some areas, or dare I say it, why don't they get better insulation for which grants are also available, or even downsize so they can have more efficient homes?
800 000 people not claiming pension credit? That seems very high.

I know someone who like me, does not qualify for pension credit and moans about losing the WFA so has gone to Australia for a holiday to keep warm. Honestly, you can't make it up!

It's easy to make those kind of snap judgements when you have no idea about people's individual circumstances. We live in an old house which has as much insulation as possible and installed a new boiler just over a year ago. There is very little we could possibly do to make our house more energy efficient - and for various reasons, downsizing simply isn't an option for us. We don't qualify for benefits of any kind. Fortunately we do have a woodburning stove and we can get access to free logs for that, so we tend to use that alone and only put the central heating on when absolutely necessary (and our idea of 'absolutely necessary' would probably horrify others). During the daytime, we just layer up, but there are occasions when it gets so cold (we live in Scotland) that it is genuinely quite miserable.