Children across the UK are living in 'Dickensian conditions' due to sky-high energy bills

Children are facing illness, missing school, going without showers and wearing dirty clothing because their families are struggling to afford energy bills, a new report has revealed.

Fuel Bank Foundation provides emergency energy bill support to people who cannot afford to top up their prepayment meter, nearly half (45%) of whom have children.

Matthew Cole, head of Fuel Bank Foundation, said: “We often think of fuel poverty as something that mainly affects the elderly, but it’s a blight on the lives of people of all ages, from young children to pensioners.

“Our latest research shows that by ignoring the issue of cold homes, we are preventing children from achieving their potential and consequently trapping them into lifelong poverty.”

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Young families – aged 18 to 35 – are most at risk of living in “fuel crisis”, according to the charity. Every day, around 15% of young families ran out of money to top up their meter in the last 12 months.

Meanwhile, nearly three quarters (73%) used their voucher to pay off a debt, a quarter (26%) were already disconnected from their energy supply when they applied for an emergency fuel voucher from Fuel Bank Foundation.

Cole said this “frightens and worries” the team at Fuel Bank Foundation, warning that children are “being set up to fail in school and later in life – which is unimaginably wrong and desperately sad”.

More than half (57%) of people the charity supports had had to choose between hot food or energy at least once a week, around three quarters (74%) were rationing heating or hot water.

Leanne Gough is the family engagement officer at Parc Primary School, in Cwmparc, a small village in South Wales. More than two thirds of pupils are classed as vulnerable, and it is one of Fuel Bank Foundation’s referral partners.

She said: “It’s heartbreaking to see the effect this has on children. As well as the physical and mental impact, from an educational perspective they are disadvantaged too, as they can’t do the online learning and homework at home because they don’t have internet access. Parents are doing their best, but it just feels never ending.”

It is estimated that 1.7 million school days are missed across Europe each year due to illnesses associated with damp and mould, with rates among UK children 80% higher than the European average, according to recent research from the Institute of Health Equity.

Cole said: “As well as being off sick due to damp and mould related illnesses, children are refusing to go to school because they are being bullied, shunned or shamed because their clothes smell or they haven’t been able to have a bath or shower.

“Without good health or a good education, what chance have these children got of pulling themselves out of poverty when they grow up?”

Energy bills increased this month, just as the colder weather began to hit. Households are now paying an average of  £1,717 a year for gas and electricity, an £149 increase on the previous rate, according to Ofgem’s energy price cap.

“In spite the fact that we are through the peak of the crisis, the crisis feels like it is still very much here for many people,” Cole said.

Last year, the Fuel Bank Foundation spent around £1m every week to help people through crisis, Cole said, adding that “it looks like this year will not be much different”.

Cold homes are believed to cost the UK economy tens of billions of pounds every year, through costs incurred by the NHS, mental health services, care costs and the lost economic contributions of people.

Fuel Bank Foundation is calling on the government to make energy more affordable, provide more financial support and upgrade the UK’s housing stock with better quality homes which are less expensive to heat.

Cole added: “Adults living in cold homes are becoming too ill to work, and losing access to heat and power makes it all the more difficult for them to do what they need to do to improve their situations.

“Allowing families to live in such Dickensian conditions is morally abhorrent, not to mention economically irresponsible. Unless we start focusing on prevention now, the cycle will repeat itself and potentially worsen when today’s children grow into adults.”

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