A charity has warned "unprecedented numbers" of pensioners could die in their homes this winter without further Government help to pay spiralling energy bills. Age UK has written to Tory leadership contenders Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, urging them to commit publicly to emergency support for older people and those on low incomes to keep their homes heated during the colder months.
The charity is also calling on the candidates to back restoring the pensions triple lock to support retirees struggling with the cost-of-living crisis when one of them becomes Prime Minister. Age UK director Caroline Abrahams said: "The way the cost of living keeps rising is a nightmare for us all, but especially for people on low incomes, among them millions of pensioners.
"Substantial numbers are struggling financially already, but if the economic forecasts are accurate many more pensioners will be plunged into serious trouble come the autumn and winter, including some who until very recently believed their position to be totally secure. Older people and others in our society on low incomes will also need a big injection of extra financial support from the Government to see them through the autumn and winter, because inflation is so rapidly eroding the help they were given just a few months ago.
