Campaigners warn: Cost of living crisis will kill the elderly

MORE older people will die because they can’t afford to heat their homes this winter, campaigners warned as they marched through London, Liverpool and Manchester yesterday.

- Tony Whitfield

Without more Government help, the physical and mental health of Britain’s poorest pensioners will suffer as energy prices and the cost of living soar, protesters said.

Before the latest crisis, more than a million older people in Britain were already living in fuel poverty and many more risked their health by rationing food and heating to keep bills down.

But energy price rises will mean that an increasing number of low-income pensioners, who don’t qualify for benefits, will be pushed into fuel poverty.

Charity bosses insist that the energy bill rebate and other measures recently ann ounced by the Chancellor are not enough to tackle the crisis.

Campaign group Silver Voices recently launched a parliamentary petition to get an £500 increase in the basic state pension but the Government said it had no plans for an increase and added: “We have never paid pensioners more.”

Director Dennis Reed said: “It is no exaggeration to say that lives will be lost because of the energy crisis and the cost of living response to that from the Government.