The current cost of living is pushing more people into poverty, with almost 68% of low income...
Fuel poverty
-
16/05/2013
Small drop in fuel poverty in 2011
The number of fuel-poor households in the UK fell to 4.5 million in 2011, from 4.75 million in 2010, according to the latest official annual report.
The report from the Department for Energy and Climate Change also provides figures based on the alternative measure for fuel poverty suggested by Professor John Hills in his independent review (March 2012).
Category: Reports -
28/02/2013
‘Severe effect’ of fuel poverty on children
Fuel poverty can have severe and life-long effects on children, according to a new report from the Association for the Conservation of Energy. The authors point out that although it is widely recognised that fuel poverty has severe effects on older people, the position of families and children has been relatively neglected.
Category: Reports -
17/12/2012
Big rise in fuel poverty
The latest round of energy price rises is likely to have pushed a further 300,000 households in England into fuel poverty, according to a report by an official advisory body. It also says that government action thus far is 'completely inadequate' to tackle the scale of the problem.
Category: Reports -
18/09/2012
Government consults on fuel poverty measurement
The government has begun consultation on proposals for a new way to measure fuel poverty in England, following an independent review. The proposed new definition includes dual indicators separating the extent of the issue (the number of people affected) from its depth (how badly people are affected).
An independent review by Professor John Hills (London School of Economics) recommended in March 2012 a move away from the current definition of fuel poverty (based on whether a household needs to spend more than 10 per cent of its income on energy), which he argued is 'not fit for purpose'. The government has now said it plans to adopt the overall framework proposed by Hills.
Category: News stories -
13/08/2012
PSE: Northern Ireland bulletin, No. 2, December 2011
This bulletin reports on OECD measures of inequality, the rise in income poverty, the final report of the High Pay Commission, fuel poverty, the Family Resources Survey deprivation indicators for Northern Ireland, HM Revenue and Customs child poverty measure, and the Child Poverty Act.
Category: -
10/07/2012
A single pensioner
Rosaleen is 75, single and lives in south Belfast where she is active in the local community. Having worked all her life, she had thought that her state pension and a small occupational pension would be sufficient in her retirement. But, increasingly, she finds paying the bills difficult.
Meet Rosaleen in the following two videos recorded in December 2011.
Rosleen single pensioner
Category: Case study -
07/06/2012
Housing and the Living Environment Indicators in the PSE survey
This paper discusses indicators to housing and the living environment, Domain 10 of the Bristol Social Exclusion Matrix (BSEM), for use in the Poverty and Social Exclusion survey. Indicators that capture the relationship between poverty and housing must give a good picture of the following main areas: the physical quality of housing; the degree of (over)crowdedness; the suitability for the specific needs of the household; the security of tenure and the affordability of housing. The effect of housing on other measures of poverty and social exclusion extend to the quality of the neighbourhood and the wider area in which housing is located, referred to as the living environment, which will be measured through various indicators of neighbourhood quality.
Category: Methods development -
28/05/2012
Fuel poverty in Northern Ireland – ‘little progress’
‘Little progress’ seems to have been made in tackling fuel poverty in Northern Ireland, according to a committee of the Northern Ireland Assembly. It says eliminating fuel poverty will require a long-term strategic policy approach.
Members of the Social Development Committee say it is clear that bridging the gap between identifying solutions to fuel poverty and implementing those solutions is going to require innovative thinking.
Key recommendations include:
The Northern Ireland Executive should establish an overall action plan to address fuel poverty through a coordinated and collaborative approach. Individual task groups should identify and prioritise workable and realistic solutions to fuel poverty, and not develop ‘wish lists’.Source: Report on Fuel Poverty, Second Report (Session 2011/2012), Northern Ireland Assembly Committee for Social Development, TSO
Category: Reports -
08/03/2012
Low income families squeezed hard by rising inflation
The government’s austerity measures and rising inflation are eating into the budgets of low income families, according to the charity Family Action. The report shows that among families helped by the charity, fuel and food costs were placing family budgets under intense pressure, leaving nothing for parents to save for their children’s future, or for fun activities other children could enjoy such as a school disco.
Category: News stories -
05/03/2012
Measuring fuel poverty
A paper has examined the earliest formulations of the concept of ‘fuel poverty’, focusing in particular on the 10 per cent ‘needed to spend’ threshold first advanced in 1991. The authors argue that understanding more about the origins of this threshold helps to explain why fuel poverty targets in the United Kingdom have not subsequently been reached.
The paper:
Category: Reports
