The PSOE urges the Government to seek solutions to energy poverty

Energy poverty in Spain it is an issue that concerns us all. Many homes cannot turn on the heat on the coldest days or have refrigeration appliances on the hottest days of summer. The cause of this is the high price of electricity bills and the lack of employment for which to earn income at home.

Families go through situations in which they need light in order to meet their needs. There have been cases in which people die due to the lack of light in homes. The latest data obtained through the National Institute of Statistics (INE) say that 11% of families (about five million people) can't get warm in the colder months because they can't pay their electricity bills.

It is because of that Miguel Angel Heredia, Secretary General of the PSOE, has raised today in Congress the need for a great State Pact to combat energy poverty. This is a serious problem, as we have seen before, that claims many lives per year (even almost more than those from traffic accidents).

Heredia has asked the central government to action is taken and acted upon in the focus of the problem immediately. In this way, it will be possible to find and provide solutions to families that cannot pay the electricity or water bill and minimize the impacts. Several studies have been carried out and they have analyzed families who cannot pay their bills because they do not have enough financial resources to do so. Due to lack of employment, large family, etc. Circumstances arise whereby family spending increases and does not come to pay the bills. Heredia has commented that the Government cannot look the other way to this situation and pretend that nothing is happening.

The PSOE has encouraged the creation of an initiative to be able to demand from the Government the reform of the Electricity Sector Law to ensure supply to vulnerable consumers. It has also asked the Government to take the necessary decisions to mitigate the possible effects of the annulment by the Supreme Court of the financing scheme for the social bonus.

Due to the situation in which we find ourselves it is estimated that, today, there are more than 2,4 million Spaniards who are covered by social bonds since they do not have to pay bills.