Fuel poverty and extreme fuel poverty: estimates

Fuel poor and income poor households under the current definition and the new definition

The diagram below illustrates the relationship between fuel poor and income poor households, under the current definition and the proposed new definition of fuel poverty. Under the current definition, 63% of fuel poor households are income poor; this increases to 73% under the new definition, demonstrating that the new definition of fuel poverty is better aligned with income poverty than the current definition.

Notes

Data presented for the proposed new definition is our best available estimate based on the 2017 SHCS. Further work is in progress to collect information through the 2018 SHCS on the income of other adults (beyond the highest income householder and their spouse) in the household as well as childcare costs. These are not currently accounted for in the data presented. We will also be undertaking analysis of missing survey housing cost data, determining households to which the enhanced heating regime should apply, reviewing weather and fuel price information used in the modelling of required fuel bills with the aim of making these more localised where possible, employing the full 107 MIS thresholds and considering smoothing of the MIS data over time if required.