The Government was today accused of not doing enough to tackle fuel poverty among the elderly after new figures revealed it caused an extra 545 deaths in Northern Ireland last year.

A new report released today as part of Age Awareness Week showed that Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK where the number of older people dying because of fuel poverty actually rose.

And it found almost a third of pensioners here are surviving below the poverty line.

Figures from the One Voice report, which provides a year-on-year analysis of ageing policy in Northern Ireland, show that the number of excess winter deaths increased by 545 last year, prompting accusations that the Government is not doing enough to tackle the problem of fuel poverty.

Those living in severe poverty have increased by 18% and pensioner poverty is said to be more prevalent in Northern Ireland than the rest of the UK — with rates being 5% higher than the UK average.

The report also revealed that half of the older people surveyed said they were struggling to get by, with a massive 70% saying that staying warm in winter was their biggest worry.

Age Concern Help the Aged NI, responsible for compiling the report, is calling on the Government to take drastic action to help reduce the number of winter deaths among older people.

Chief executive Anne O’Reilly said: “The effort made by the Government has not been enough. Issues such as fuel poverty have been tackled elsewhere and we feel more should be done here.

“There is no reason why the number of excess winter deaths should not be decreasing. “Every pound the Northern Ireland Executive spends, only 10p goes toward supporting older people. This is simply not enough. There should be a shared responsibility for tackling fuel poverty and the other main issues older people face, which are ill health and exclusion.”

More than 70% of the people surveyed said many of their health issues were untreated, with some pensioners claiming doctors had dismissed their complaints, putting them down to ‘old age’. Over two thirds of the over-65s claimed they were treated like children and that age discrimination existed in their everyday lives.

Despite the Government’s promise to address the issues faced by pensioners in their 2005 Ageing in an Inclusive Society Strategy, Ms O’Reilly said they failed to deliver their promises.

She said: “The 2005 strategy has failed to tackle the issues they promised to address and progress has been minimal. We hope more will be done in the future.”

With the over-50s making up a third of Northern Ireland’s population and the number expected to increase by 53% in the next 20 years, Ms O’ Reilly said it was time for the Government to act.