A think-tank has warned families with children will be worse off than pensioners after the Winter Fuel Payment cut.
The Resolution Foundation has issued a warning that working-age families are more likely than older people to struggle with their energy bills in the coming months.
Their research revealed that around 7.7 million households would be at risk of “fuel stress” this winter, meaning they would spend more than 10 per cent of their income on gas and electric bills.
However, the think tank claimed families with children were more than twice as likely as pensioners to be impacted by fuel stress.
The policy has proved controversial
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It comes after the Labour leadership last week was struck with an embarrassing defeat on a non-binding vote by unions to reverse the cut at its party conference in Liverpool.
Sir Keir Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves have tried to justify the cut by claiming it will save up to £1.5billion a year. A total of seven million pensioner households are expected to lose the payment, of which at least one million will be classed as low-income.
This low-income category includes those who are narrowly above the threshold to claim pension credit, as well as those entitled to the benefit but do not claim it. As a result of the winter fuel cuts, only households receiving pension credit will receive payments of either £200 or £300 to help with energy bills this winter.
Alex Clegg from the Resolution Foundation said the high number of families with children among those struggling with energy bills illustrated “how poorly targeted winter fuel payments are”.
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Clegg added: “Looking beyond this winter, the Government should prioritise developing a social tariff and investing in energy efficiency for our homes. This would help to ensure that vulnerable families are insulated from future energy shocks, whatever their age or circumstances.”
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has also warned that the cost of living crisis had forced 1.6m low-income families to turn off their fridges or freezers to afford bills.
Katie Schmuecker, from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said: “This looks like another winter of sleeping in a coat, not showering and only cooking once a week to try to keep the bills down.
“We need to see an urgent plan for hardship at the upcoming Budget to stop those with the least going hungry and cold this winter.”
It comes as Tory leadership Tom Tugendhat said October’s Budget could “destroy growth” in the UK and he branded VAT on private schools a “vindictive and nasty policy”.
The Shadow Security Minister faces Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly and Robert Jenrick in his party’s leadership contest, with Rishi Sunak’s successor due to be announced on November 2.
Taking questions on the Conservative Party conference main stage in Birmingham, Tugendhat said: “This is going to be one of the most consequential budgets in our lifetime. This is going to be a Budget that takes us back to the 1970s not forward to the future.
“This is a Budget that is going to destroy growth, destroy opportunity and destroy hope for people, and don’t just take my word for it, look at what’s happening right now.”
