The Warm Home Discount is a rebate that people in fuel poverty can apply for from their energy companies to help with their bills.

This isn’t paid automatically to low-income families, which is what we would like, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction for children in fuel poverty.

No Child Left in the Cold

When we launched our No Child Left in the Cold campaign in January, we wanted the government and energy companies to recognise how a cold home has such a detrimental impact on the lives of children and to make them a priority in the same way vulnerable older people are in the UK.

A cold home impacts the health, well-being and educational attainment of children in poverty, starting with babies struggling to gain weight, school days missed due to illness, right the way through to higher rates of depression in teenagers.

Despite this evidence, children in fuel poverty were not given the proper consideration and often excluded from initiatives set up to help vulnerable people in fuel poverty.

Thankfully, because of campaigns like ours and the support of the general public, we’ve been able to push for children in fuel poverty and the tide is starting to turn in their favour.

Energy efficiency

But to be really serious about helping children and breaking this cycle of ill health, depression and failing educational attainment, a range of measures are needed.

Energy efficiency is one of the best ways to help people in fuel poverty but low-income families also need help with the cost of bills.

The government should seriously consider data sharing with energy companies so families eligible for cold weather payments receive an automatic Warm Home Discount.

This will help young children in the poorest households and make it easier to find the homes that will really benefit from energy efficiency measures at the same time.

This year nearly £30 million was left unclaimed from the government’s Warm Front scheme but with data sharing it would have been easier for energy companies to find and help children in fuel poverty.

A holistic approach

For too long we’ve heard how parents have to choose between heating and eating, so we’re working with our programme Eat, Sleep, Learn, Play to find a holistic approach to reducing fuel poverty in their homes.

We want to find a way to bring together all the practical help available from the government and energy companies in a way that is easy to access.

The evidence collected from our work will show it’s possible to use existing schemes to protect children from fuel poverty but also why children should be a priority when it comes to making decisions on fuel poverty targets and measures in the future.

The Week follows the launch of our ‘No Child Left in the Cold’ campaign.

We are calling on energy companies and the government to do more to help families who can’t afford to heat their homes this winter.

Research shows that growing up in cold homes poses health risks to children from babies to teenagers. So we’re really pleased to see more efforts to help communities and families get the best deals and advice on fuel bills.

Sign our petition asking that no child is left in the cold.

Energy-saving advice

Big Energy Week is helping people save money on their bills in the following ways:

• Contact your suppliers to check you are on the best tariff and payment method.
• Visit an accredited switching website to see if you could get your energy cheaper elsewhere. You may be able to save up to £200 off your annual bill by shopping around for a different supplier, particularly if you have never changed energy firm.
• Insulate the walls and the loft of your home and you could save on average around £120 per year.  All suppliers are giving away free or discounted insulation – ask if you’re eligible so you don’t miss out.  That goes for heating oil customers too.
• Check you are not missing out on any benefits or tax credits that could increase your income; your local Citizens Advice Bureau can help you with this.
• Using less energy could save you money, just by doing simple things like turning off lights and switching appliances off at the wall instead of leaving them on standby.
• Turning your thermostat down 1°C alone could cut your heating bill by £60 on average.
• If you can’t pay your bills,  contact your energy supplier immediately: they have to help you manage your bills in a way that you can afford.
• If you use heating oil or liquid petroleum gas to heat your home, shop around and compare prices from different suppliers.  You could also save money by buying in bulk with your neighbours; check if there is an oil club you can join or start one up.

You can find some useful advice and pointers at www.bigenergyweek.org.uk

Save the Children is calling on the energy companies and government to do their bit for children in fuel poverty. Please  sign our petition

If anything it reiterated how serious this problem is for  many families in poverty in England.

Older people and children were once again seen as being the most vulnerable to the impacts of a cold home.

Cold and health

Health impacts caused by exposure to the cold include cardiovascular and respiratory problems, diminished resistance to infections and, in many cases for older people, death.

The report suggests that between 2004 and 2009 the amount people in fuel poverty would need to spend on energy just to keep their homes warm went up from £740 million to £1.1 billion.

This does not take into consideration the cost of energy from the last three years and the most recent hike in energy costs.

Children feel the brunt

The report also shows that one way to improve fuel poverty for vulnerable families and other groups is to make their homes more energy efficient .

But people on low incomes and in the worst housing cannot afford essential investment to improve the energy efficiency of their homes.

The reality for many families in poverty is that they are living in a cold home they cannot afford to heat and their children are bearing the brunt of it.

Poverty rip off

Evidence shows that a cold home has a detrimental effect on the health, well being and educational attainment of children in poverty. 

They are going to bed cold, falling ill and missing school, with no comfortable and warm place to do their homework resulting in yet more obstacles for children in poverty to get a fair chance in life.

When we ran our UK Poverty Rip Off campaign in January this year we spoke to families who:

• Could not afford to heat their homes without going into debt
• Were having to choose between heating and eating
• Were turning their heating and hot water off in the cold weather in order to manage the cost of energy.

And this was before the recent rise in energy prices.

This has long since reached a crisis point for many low income families in Britain.

The government and energy companies must take action to ensure that the poorest families can afford to keep warm this winter.

I joined Anne and other group members and residents of Knutsford to show support for the launch of our campaign to help low-to-middle income families with the high cost of childcare.

Holding up placards with “Make Work Pay” and “Childcare Costs Jobs”, the group wanted to draw George Osborne’s attention to the need for him to give families the support they need with childcare costs.

No family should be priced out of work because of childcare costs

Making Work Pay — The Childcare Trap is the new report by Save the Children and Daycare Trust.

It shows that many low-income parents, especially those in severe poverty (earning £12,000 or less), are being priced out of work because of childcare costs.

41% of parents in severe poverty affected by the cut in support through tax credits said they would consider giving up work and 25% said they’re considering reducing their hours.

Cutting back on essentials

Parents are also cutting back on household essentials like food, as many pay the equivalent of their mortgage or rent each month on their childcare.

Hana a local mum said: “I’m a potter by profession but I could never afford good quality childcare. It’s shocking how much it costs. I’ll wait until my son goes to school before I can start work again.”

One of the biggest increases has been the cost of energy. Poorer families pay hundreds of pounds extra to heat their homes with an annual average cost for gas and electricity of £1,135 compared with £880 for other families.

For most people it’s a struggle when the first bills arrive just after Christmas, but for the poorest families this is going to be an even tougher time. We’ve seen freezing temperatures, much snowfall and, according to the Met Office, December 2010 was one of the coldest months in a hundred years. To levy a poverty premium on top because you’re poor just isn’t fair.

Families who can’t afford to heat their homes properly could be putting their children’s health at risk. Evidence provided in this report shows that cold living conditions increase children’s susceptibility to illness, compromise healthy weight gain and respiratory problems. It can even impact on how well children do at school as children need a warm, peaceful space to do homework.

A voluntary scheme introduced by the last government asked energy companies to do more for vulnerable people, including poorer families, with the cost of heating. But only one of the big six companies introduced a social tariff that included low-income families. Now the coalition government wants to remove the social tariff and introduce a rebate scheme to help vulnerable groups, again under a voluntary scheme with the energy companies. But this means that, once again, the poorest families could be left out in the cold.

We want Chris Huhne, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, to make it law that all vulnerable groups — including the poorest families — are included in the rebate scheme. There has to be a fairer system that doesn’t penalise the poorest families and impact on the lives of their children. One way of making it better would be for the poorest families to be guaranteed the Warm Home Discount rebate.

Find out more about the UK poverty rip-off

It was a circus themed event hosted by Save the Children but thought of and performed by the young people we’ve worked with on our poverty kills childhood campaign this year.

The young people, known as Young Ambassadors from the project In My Backyard, showcased their different campaigns on how local communities and lives can be improved. It was aimed at decision makers and MPs in the local area and it was great to see Kate Green MP, former Chief Executive of the Child Poverty Action Group, at the event.

Young person taking part at summit

The circus had a poverty tightrope and circus workshops and the young Ambassadors performed rap, dance and acrobatics as well as play back theatre – where the guests get to be part of the performance.

But most importantly there was an elephant with a ‘peanut pledge card’ where you could attach your promise on how you would end child poverty in the future. So watch this space as an elephant never forgets.

According to the report, the gap in income between the middle and the bottom has not improved in the past decade and, on some measures, appears to have increased. A higher proportion of children grow up in workless households in the UK than in almost any other EU country.

People living in the poorest neighbourhoods in England will, on average, die seven years earlier than people living in the richest neighbourhoods. The gap in educational attainment between children from rich and poor backgrounds remains persistently high. Social mobility in Britain is worse than in the USA, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Canada, Finland and Denmark.

“A system that was originally designed to support the poorest in society is now trapping them in the very condition it was supposed to alleviate”, Work and Pensions Secretary Mr Duncan Smith said.

Iain Duncan Smith wants an overhaul of the benefits system and when you look at that list you have to agree. But getting people off benefits and into work isn’t the solution to child poverty unless that work takes you out of income poverty.

A report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation called Addressing in-work Poverty showed that tax credits are increasingly needed to avoid in-work poverty as, for many familie,s work isn’t the route out of poverty.  Work needs to pay better. That means making sure people can keep more of their benefits when they get a job and making sure the minimum wage increases. A lot has been done in the last ten years to bring the numbers of children living in poverty down. There are 600,000 fewer children living in poverty today than was the case in 1999, but clearly more needs to be done.

Living in income poverty means being unable to have the standard of living many take for granted. It also affects children’s’ future chances and opportunities. But income poverty also has an impact on social mobility.

Save the Children has long highlighted that living in income poverty as a child is associated with increased risks of lower school performance and the risk of unemployment in later life. Only 7% of the population attended independent schools but they make up over half of the top earning professions including 75% of judges, 70% of finance directors and 45% of top civil servants.

Save the Children is pushing for change that breaks this cycle of intergenerational poverty — especially when the report points out that the top 10% of households possess 100 times the wealth of the bottom 10%.

The first steps should be that having a job ensures a decent standard of living and that a pupil premium of £3,000 is ringfenced for children in poverty so they achieve better exam results.

Find out more about child poverty in the UK.

In an earlier blog I wrote about how, despite continued political promises to close the educational attainment gap, it remains wide open. Rich and poor children do not perform equally at school. Children receiving free school meals are far less likely to achieve five A*- C grades than their better off classmates.

The education gap between rich and poor pupils is something we want to see closed as education has long been seen as a route out of poverty.

The key area in the Bill of particular interest to us was a reform of Ofsted and other accountability frameworks to ensure that head teachers are held properly accountable for the core educational goals of attainment and closing the gap between rich and poor.

We will also be campaigning for the introduction of a ‘pupil premium’ so that more money follows the poorest pupils.

No figure was released with the Bill, but we want to see a commitment of £3,000 to each child receiving free school meals to provide them with extra support. This could pay for personal tuition, trips, books and Saturday catch-up classes and give poorer pupils a proper chance at a good education that takes them out of poverty and into a well paid job.

VAT is set at a flat rate and does not take into account the ability of people to pay.

VAT rise burden

When we ran the crisis grants programme with Family Action to help families struggling to buy essential items, the most requested items after children’s clothes and school uniforms were children’s beds, washing machines and furniture.

Children’s clothes are exempt from VAT, but other goods which are indispensable for families carry the same rate of VAT, no matter how poor or rich you are. Raising VAT to 20% could mean that the poorest families already struggling to afford basic household items pay more than £1,600 a year in VAT.

We don’t believe the poorest children in the UK should pay for the economic crisis. Instead of a VAT increase the next government should look at other measures to bring down the deficit.

The government could:

• Introduce a Financial Transactions Tax

• Abolish tax havens and take action on tax avoidance

• Increase income tax for the very highest earners

• Extend inheritance tax.

So, how can you help? Tell your local candidate you want them to support children in poverty in the UK.

Despite continued political promises to close the educational attainment gap, it remains wide open – rich and poor children do not perform equally at school. Children receiving free school meals are far less likely to achieve five A*- C grades than their better off classmates.

When you compare the results of the poorest children with those in private schools you find that the results are even more depressing. The latest breakdown shows that 175 boys from Eton College scored three As at A Level, compared to just 75 of the poorest boys across the entire country.

However it’s not all doom and gloom for children from poorer backgrounds; evidence suggests that investment targeted on raising educational standards of children on free schools meals does work. In London where money has been invested in initiatives such as personal tuition for children on free school meals, they are now more likely to get five good passes at GCSE than their counterparts in other regions.

It might sound like a cliché that children are our future, but the children of today are tomorrow’s inventor, scientist or entrepreneur. Unless children from all backgrounds are given the opportunity to realise their potential through education, it will not just be poorer children who lose out, but society as a whole.

Here’s how you can help