The financial struggles of a Sunderland pensioner have been highlighted in a Channel 4 Dispatches programme that showed the impact the cost of living crisis has had on the elderly.
Retired manual worker, John Foster was frightened to put his heating on and turned off his empty fridge and lights due to the rising cost of bills. The 76-year-old was one of a number pensioners from across the country that appeared in the episode called Britain’s Forgotten Pensioners on Tuesday night.
The programme followed three sets of pensioners, including John from Sunderland and Doreen from Tynemouth, across the winter months of 2022 and 2023, as cold snaps combined with high heating and electricity bills make life uncomfortable, lonely and dangerous.
