While heat is of prime importance to an older person's health, there was no increase in the fuel allowance in the Budget, writes Laura Slattery
Overcoat-wearing pensioners shivering in the one room of their house that they can afford to heat won't have had their hearts warmed by Minister for Finance Brian Cowen's Budget speech earlier this month. There was no increase in the weekly rate of the fuel allowance that so many older people depend on to stay warm during the winter.
Now new data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) suggests a chilly front is on the way: the price of home heating oil spiked last month by 12 per cent, with the cost of liquid fuels now 25 per cent higher than they were last winter.
The soaring cost of heating oil - the result of global crude oil prices rising to nearly $100 per barrel - has more than offset November's 5.4 per cent cut in electricity prices, meaning it promises to be a tough Christmas for people already living in "fuel poverty" - defined as spending more than 10 per cent of your income on heating your home.
For older people, who find it harder to maintain a constant body temperature, the risks to their health of an inadequately heated home are serious.
Age Action Ireland, which is running its annual public information campaign with the support of ESB Customer Supply, cites medical research that says when the room temperature falls below 16 degrees, there is an increased risk of respiratory problems, while when it drops below 12 degrees, the risk of stroke and heart attack increases.
At least 16,000 pensioners are thought to live in fuel poverty in Ireland. A 2003 report by Sustainable Energy Ireland (SEI) gives a much higher estimate, placing the total number of Irish households living in persistent or intermittent fuel poverty at 227,000.
In Ireland, 1,500-2,000 more deaths occur during the winter than during the summer, notes Eamon Timmins, Age Action's head of advocacy and communications.
Age Action had asked the Government for a €10 increase in the €18 per week fuel allowance, which is paid from the end of September to mid-April.
The payment, which is paid to about 290,000 households, did rise by €4 a week last January, when the number of free units of electricity that people aged 70 and over and other welfare-dependent families receive was also increased (from 1,800 units to 2,400 units a year).
But these electricity and gas allowances often go unused.
"Many people are scared to put the heat on and turn on the lights because they're worried they won't be able to pay the bill," says Timmins.
And to the disappointment of Age Action, last fortnight's Budget only made one small change to the fuel allowance, extending the period in which it is paid by one week to 30 weeks.
This fell somewhat short of the call in the St Vincent de Paul (SVP) pre-Budget submission for the allowance to be paid for 34 weeks and increased to €25 a week.
The actual increase of just one week in the fuel season works out at just 62 cent extra a week - a "derisory" amount in today's energy market, according to Prof John Monaghan, national vice-president of the SVP.
"Our workers have gone into houses that have been absolutely freezing because the heat hasn't been put on for three weeks," he says.
Worryingly, the full effect of the dramatic surge in global oil prices has probably yet to be felt on the home heating oil market. But already people are finding that their money won't fill up the tank quite as far as it did last year, Monaghan says.
It's "impossible to quantify" how many people will die as a result of higher fuel prices without a corresponding rise in fuel allowances.
"But it's not an exaggeration to say that more people will see their health suffer," says Monaghan.
Alleviating fuel poverty requires more than just higher fuel payments and allowances, however. Housing conditions also need to be tackled.
"Older people living in more rural areas in poorly insulated homes tend to be more isolated, and what they spend on fuel tends to be dissipated in a very inefficient way."
The SVP wants the Government to provide more funds to SEI for its programme of energy grants for low-income households.
In 2007, about 950 homes in the greater Dublin area had their energy efficiency improved under the warmer homes scheme, with the fitting of lagging jackets on water tanks, the sealing of doors and windows and attic insulation among the project's measures.
The Department of the Environment awards grants of up to €10,500 under its housing aid for older people scheme, while Energy Action, in conjunction with Dublin City Council, is also working on a central heating installation pilot scheme.
Energy Action's general manager, Charles Roarty, hopes this scheme will be available on a national basis through local authorities next year. About 49,000 houses in the State are without central heating, according to Roarty, who would like to see a more co-ordinated approach by the Government to eliminating fuel poverty.
If it comes down to it, people who can't afford to pay their energy bills will try to keep their body temperature up by huddling in the warmest part of their house - a phenomenon known as "spatial shrink" - and wearing as many layers as possible, says Timmins.
But there is a limit to the sensible advice: the problem with hypothermia is that people eventually lose sensitivity and don't know how cold they are.
Age Action hopes that the booklets and temperature cards it is distributing will help, but it admits it is concerned by what it calls "the silent issue" of fuel poverty.
"The people most at risk here are people who have multiple disadvantages," says Timmins. "They might be living alone, depending on their pension and they probably don't have that much mobility."