NEARLY one in 10 households in Reading are officially living in fuel poverty.

Government statistics show 6,239 households (9.8% of houses) in the borough were spending more than 10% of the household income on heating bills in 2011.

This compares to 5,522 homes in West Berkshire (8.7%) and 4,412 in Wokingham (7.2%).

Janet Brown, chief officer of Age UK Reading, said: "We see a lot of people who are struggling financially anyway because pension levels are so low and we would obviously like to see older people who have paid into the system all their lives get the decent pensions they deserve, so they can afford to keep warm without having to resort to different means to try to get extra help." The Government pays winter fuel allowances to pensioners, ranging from �100 to �300 depending on circumstances.

But the Labour Party last week announced plans to strip 'wealthy' pensioners of their allowance if they get back into power.

Reacting on the Chronicle's Facebook page, Sanj Chowdhary said: "Of course those with vast amounts of savings don't deserve winter fuel payments which are meant to help those suffering fuel poverty. 600,000 extremely rich people living abroad shouldn't get a single penny - in fact, they are benefits cheats of the worst kind." The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) figures released last month show there were 4.5m people in fuel poverty across the country in 2011, a 250,000 drop on 2010.