Poorest households cut back on food to pay for water, charity finds

Charity National Energy Action has found that 22% of low-income households are cutting back on food to pay their water bill with more than 40% bathing less for the same purpose following a poll of 4,000 adults in Great Britain. And a quarter of respondents said they were cutting back on “essential personal hygiene” products.

Water poverty lead at charity, National Energy Action, (NEA) Jess Cook, said: “This research is the first to give an insight into the coping strategies water poor households implement to try and manage their bills, and the results are truly shocking."

NEA said with the removal of Universal Credit uplift more people may need to implement some of these coping tactics to afford the basics.

NEA said its poll showed that awareness of the availability of support was very low, with 9% of respondents indicating they knew at least a fair amount about the support that was available from water companies. NEA said this backed calls in the CCW Affordability Review to raise awareness through campaigning and seeking out those in financial need rather than waiting for them to speak up.

See story Fewer than half of households know help is available, watchdog finds.