{"id":74165,"date":"2025-08-27T15:11:51","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T14:11:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/?p=74165"},"modified":"2026-03-13T15:56:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T15:56:17","slug":"closing-the-fuel-poverty-gap-why-targeted-energy-support-is-vital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/blog\/closing-the-fuel-poverty-gap-why-targeted-energy-support-is-vital\/","title":{"rendered":"Closing the fuel poverty gap: why targeted energy support is vital"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Ofgem has announced another increase to the energy price cap. While the cap limits the unit price of energy, there\u2019s no limit to how much households pay overall. If you use more, you pay more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For millions of people, that means another winter of impossible choices. Disabled people with complex needs are struggling to power vital equipment. Families on low incomes are going without food. Older people are cutting back to a single hot meal a week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On average, energy bills are \u00a3700 higher than five years ago. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/the-warm-home-discount-scheme\">Warm Home Discount<\/a> &#8211; a one-off payment of \u00a3150 &#8211; barely touches the gap, misses too many households, and is due to end in April 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sense research has found two in five (41%) families with a disabled child can\u2019t afford to keep their home warm enough during winter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s why Sense has joined Scope, Age UK, Mencap, Fair by Design, Independent Age and energy company E.ON to call for urgent government action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What needs to change<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Extend the Warm Home Discount<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list is-style-primary-bullets\">\n<li>Keep the scheme beyond 2026<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Raise the payment to \u00a3400, in line with the fuel poverty gap<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Ensure disabled people can access support<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Add \u00a3100 booster payments for disabled households and for those paying by Standard Credit<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>This would give immediate relief and a bridge to longer-term reform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Introduce fairer energy bills by 2027\u201328<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>We\u2019re calling for a new payment-based energy discount (or \u201csocial tariff\u201d) for:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list is-style-primary-bullets\">\n<li>Households where someone receives benefits, including disability benefits<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Low-income households earning under \u00a330,000<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Support would start at \u00a3700 for the lowest incomes and taper down as earnings rise. Disabled households and those paying by Standard Credit would receive an extra \u00a3100.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Why it matters<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>This plan could lift more than a million households out of fuel poverty. It would mean disabled people with complex needs are not forced into debt just to stay warm and families are not left choosing between heating and eating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What happens next<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The government has promised to consult on energy support but has set no date. We\u2019re calling for:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list is-style-primary-bullets\">\n<li>A public consultation by autumn 2025<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Legislative changes in 2026<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A new system in place by winter 2027<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Every winter without action puts more lives at risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Find out more<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>You can read the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.publicfirst.co.uk\/closing-the-fuel-poverty-gap.html\">full report<\/a> on Public First\u2019s website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For millions of people, another winter of impossible choices looms. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1393,7],"tags":[],"display_author":[1310],"class_list":["post-74165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-policy","category-blog","display_author-tom-marsland"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74165\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74165"},{"taxonomy":"display_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/display_author?post=74165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}