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Social tariffs failing to avert customer debt
01/09/2008 17:04:00
Voluntary action on the part of companies is not helping enough families avoid the debt incurred by paying energy costs, a coalition of charities says.
Energy companies offer social tariffs designed to help households in fuel poverty, which supply subsidised rates for those who might have to turn to debt to afford gas or electricity.
Age Concern, Child Poverty Action Group and National Energy Action are criticising these schemes for being poorly funded, badly advertised and failing to include enough "vulnerable" customers.
They claim figures show spend on these schemes, as a share of the companies' profits, fell by nearly half during 2006-07.
Director general of Age Concern Gordon Lishman claims one in three pensioner households will be suffering fuel poverty but will not be eligible for the subsidised rates.
He says: "Even some of the big energy companies have admitted that voluntary social tariffs aren't working."
The head of policy for the Child Poverty Action Group Paul Dornan has described the voluntary approach as "failing" and called for government intervention.
In related news, the final two companies of the Big Six energy firms to put up rates twice this year have announced they are about to do so.
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