Fuel poverty in the United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom fuel poverty is said to occur when, in order to heat its home to an adequate standard of warmth, a household needs to spend more than 10% of its income on total fuel use. Adequate warmth is generally defined to be 21 °C in the main living room and 18 °C in other occupied rooms during daytime hours, with lower temperatures at night, following the recommendations of the World Health Organization. Fuel poverty is not just about access to heating as the definition of fuel is taken to include all expenditure on domestic energy, including that used for hot water, cooling, lights and appliances. This definition is essentially that first established by Dr Brenda Boardman in her book entitled Fuel Poverty, first published in 1991.^[1]

Other definitions

There are, however, a variety of different ways of considering household income when measuring fuel poverty. The UK definition does not, for example, take account of the amount that a household actually spends on fuel, nor the amount available for the household to spend on fuel after other costs have been met.

The UK Government’s preferred definition of household income includes income from housing-related benefits in the calculation of household income. Other estimates of the extent of fuel poverty exclude benefits from household income. The charity National Energy Action (NEA) regards both these definitions as unacceptable and believes that disposable income (after the deduction of housing costs) should be used in the definition of fuel poverty.

On 14 March 2011, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change announced he had asked Professor John Hills of the London School of Economics to lead a review of the fuel poverty definition and target.^[2] The interim report of this independent review was published on 19 October 2011.^[3] On page 19 of the interim report, Hill suggests redefining a fuel poor household as one that has required fuel costs that are above the median level, and were they to spend that amount, would be left with a residual income below the official poverty line. No official action has yet been taken on this suggestion.

Households in fuel poverty

In early 2008 it was estimated by Energywatch that there were around 4.4 million households in fuel poverty in the UK, with just over 3 million in England alone.^[4] This was more than double the number in 2003.

2008 saw significant price increases of approximately 45% by energy companies on gas and electric. In early 2009 the companies declared they were to drop their prices, but only a 10% reduction was seen across the board and this did not happen, with the exception of British Gas, until March 31, once the worst of the winter was over. Research from NEA showed that as of March 2009 over 5 million households across the UK were living in fuel poverty.

In April 2011 a YouGov survey indicated that the number of households in fuel poverty had risen to 6.3 million households, representing approximately 24% of all households in the UK.

Excess winter deaths

Excess winter deaths are defined by the Office for National Statistics as the difference between the number of deaths during the four winter months (December to March) and the average number of deaths during the preceding autumn (August to November) and the following summer (April to July).

Although the phenomenon of excess winter deaths is not unique to the United Kingdom, the incidence is markedly higher than for countries with similar climates and living standards. England has an 18% rise in deaths during the winter, on average, whereas Finland has a 10% increase, Germany and the Netherlands have 11%.^[5]

Since 2000, excess winter deaths in England and Wales remained generally at around 25,000. For the period of 2007-2008 the number of excess winter deaths was 27,480 of which the Hill reporte estimated that around 10% were caused directly by fuel poverty.^[6] The winter of 2008-2009 the coldest in 10 years, and the Office for National Statistics estimated there were a total of 36,700, an increase of 49% over the previous year, which represents a 23.8% rise in deaths during the winter.^[7]

Exposure to the cold does affect the number of winter deaths‚ but it is very unusual for the cold to kill people directly. In the main these deaths are from respiratory or cardio-vascular ailments. Overall deaths are from heart attacks‚ strokes‚ bronchial and other conditions‚ and may often occur several days after exposure to the cold. Spending too long in the cold will lower the body temperature which can often aggravate circulatory diseases‚ which can lead to strokes and heart attacks or respiratory illnesses such as bronchitis or pneumonia.

Under the Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Act 2006 the Government is obliged to report annual progress in cutting the number of households in which one or more persons are living in fuel poverty.

Action programmes

The UK has two main programmes that are designed to address fuel poverty by improving energy efficiency. These are the Warm Front programme, offering a package of insulation and heating measures at no cost to private sector residents meeting certain, mainly income-related, requirements, and the Carbon Emission Reduction Target (CERT, formerly the Energy Efficiency Commitment), which requires licensed energy supplier to meet certain targets in improving domestic energy efficiency, with at least 40% of such savings to come from defined target groups who are more likely to suffer from fuel poverty. The Government imposes certain standards on public sector landlords to help them lift their tenants out of fuel poverty. The Government also claims that the Winter Fuel Payment^[8] helps to mitigate fuel poverty, but as this is paid to all households with an occupant over 60, this measure is a generally available benefit and not targeted on the fuel poor.

Britain’s energy companies have now earmarked £3.8 billion for measures to help the most vulnerable.

The Home Heat Helpline - 0800 33 66 99 - can provide assistance to the following vulnerable groups:

• Advice on social tariffs – typically a 20% saving
• Access to the Priority Service Register, with free annual gas appliance safety checks, passwords for official gas and electricity-related callers. Third party, Braille, large print and talking billing
• Grants for free home insulation regardless of who owns the property and no means testing for the over 70s. Absolute right for them to receive free cavity wall and loft insulation or free top-ups to modern standards. Same help to all households in receipt of Attendance Allowance, Disability Living Allowance or Employment and Support Allowance (Incapacity Benefit) Single Parent Allowance or households with young children with an annual income of less than £14,600.
• Flexible payment options for customers in fuel debt
• A disconnection safety net, ensuring no vulnerable customer will be knowingly disconnected

The Home Heat Helpline also recognises that those most in need of help are often those least able to access it so the helpline now accepts third party applications.

See also

• Poverty
• Poverty in the United Kingdom
• Energy in the United Kingdom
• Energy efficiency in British housing

References

External links

• Chapter 1 the causes and effects of fuel poverty, The UK Fuel Poverty Strategy (2001), DTI
• National Energy Action: Fuel Poverty and Energy Efficiency
• Home Heat Helpline

In the media

• Petrol Credits