Elderly at risk of fuel poverty By Reader's letter Comment | Read Comments (2) THE huge increases in energy costs from ten to 24 per cent (depending on regional variation) from npower will face many families and pensioners who were just managing to stay financially afloat with a stark choice. Do they heat the home, or do they eat? This is called fuel poverty, and is defined as energy costs being more than ten per cent of income. For some pensioners this is already 25 per cent. Some third-world countries at least have a warm climate, we do not. Now many families will be in a truly impossible situation, and I haven't even mentioned credit problems. advertisementThe council must recognise that this level of energy rise is not so much a last straw on the donkey's back but more like a last bag of cement and bricks. What action should be taken? As food prices are also increasing at record levels, I believe there must be a response of some sort. We cannot allow people to sink or this is not a society. Chris Clayton, Hempland Drive, York.
Cat food 20 years ago may have been fine, but todays cat food is no better than the crap the food industry shoves down our throats
Except for some of the Salmon flavors in gravy. I put on like 8 pounds freshman year of college from eating them as late night snacks.
All the more reason to hit the speculators. A true sin that the elderly have to suffer (along with the rest of us) so that speculators can profit from higher oil prices.
Hmmm. What if this... The speculators all did their share to take care of some elderly people... Then the speculators can make a killing and the elderly wont go hungry.... No need to HIT the speculators...
Isn't Chavez giving free heating oil to the poor ederly??? Easiest way to solve the problem is have all of our elderly sign up for that program and we can take Venezuelas oil without invading
If you really think that is is speculators that drive up the prices you need to wake up. Think about who benefits from high energy prices, and I am not talking about exon and etc. Just a hint, Putin's closest friend is running an energy "trading" firm out of Switzerland. They do not care if thew loose money on futures on ice and nymex and others. You do the math what their goal is. Also, Saudi Arabia last time I checked has some intertest in high oil prices as well. Wake up to reality. There is is monipulation on country levels. Oh, and $100 per barrel is of course justified by global demand, as we all are told. By the way it is hard to say if this is right or wrong, it all depends. All this is just one of possible reasons, I could be totally wrong of course, and I am not conspiracy theorist.
I'm not saying it's American speculators. I'm saying it's speculators all over the place. And I'm defining speculators as "anyone who does not take delivery of crude". I'm also not saying there's a true way to hit speculators, but increasing margins significantly all over would be a good start.