New research suggests that more than three million low-income households cannot afford to heat their homes this winter, posing a risk to their health as a severe chill sweeps across the country. The prolonged cold snap is set to continue into next week and Scottish household will no longer have the £25 Cold Weather Payment to help heat their homes as it has been replaced by a new devolved one-off payment for £50 which will be paid in February 2023.
But some 710,000 households are unable to follow the advice as they cannot pay for warm clothing, heating and food, according to analysis by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. A fifth of all low-income households, some 2.5 million, are going without food and heating.
The survey of 4,251 people in the bottom 40% of incomes, conducted between October 31 and November 25, also found that around 4.3 million curbed their spending on heating ahead of the cold spell.
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