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• Behind cold doors: The chilling reality for children in poverty, Dr Sam Royston, The Children’s Society, January 2014, pp. 12

Behind cold doors: The chilling reality for children in poverty, Dr Sam Royston, The Children’s Society, January 2014, pp. 12

01 January 2014

In 2011-2012 there were 110 ‘excess’ winter deaths among children in the UK, meaning that 7.9% more children died in the winter months than at other times of the year.

The research in this report found that an estimated 3.6 million children thought their home was too cold last winter and 1.3 million said that it had damp or mould.

It found that two thirds of families were likely to turn their heating down because of the cost. Of these families more than half (55%) say that they are worried about their children becoming ill as a result of their home being too cold.

More than four in 10 families (over 3 million) said that they are likely to cut back spending on food to pay for heating bills, while about half a million families said that they are likely to take out a loan this winter in order to cover the costs of heating their home.

Many of the children are in working class families living in poverty that miss out because their energy company does not provide the Warm Home Discount (WHD, a £135 discount on fuel bills available to help low-income families, as defined by the energy companies themselves).

With two thirds of children living in poverty coming from working households, and therefore not qualifying for many discount schemes, it should be recalled that energy prices are set with the objective of maximising dividends for the shareholders of privatised companies rather than providing affordable energy.

The report makes recommendations to alleviate this scandalous situation: for instance, that the government should ensure that the family of every child living in poverty receives a WHD rebate on their energy bill. This can be achieved by ensuring that all energy suppliers have the same eligibility criteria for the WHD, and by moving families living in poverty into the ‘core group’ to ensure that they get help automatically. The report is available as a free download at: http://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/sites/default/files/tcs/behind_cold_doors_-_final.pdf