Fuel poverty and disabled people: the impact of policy change
Posted on 9 June 2014
Disabled people are recognised within research and policy as being a group ‘vulnerable’ to fuel poverty, however, there is very limited evidence that considers the relationship between fuel poverty and disabled people, or the impact of welfare reform and fuel poverty policy on disabled people.
Funded by Eaga Charitable Trust, the research team undertook a statistical analysis of the 2010-2011 English Housing Survey (EHS), using the three official measures of fuel poverty; qualitative interviews with 16 stakeholders working in agencies that address fuel poverty, and 19 interviews with disabled people and the parents of disabled children.
The research found that, regardless of the measure of fuel poverty applied, a greater proportion of households containing disabled people are fuel poor compared with households that do not contain disabled people. Additionally, when disability related benefits such as Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and Attendance Allowance (AA) are removed from the calculation of income, fuel poverty rates increase. The qualitative findings demonstrate the pressure being put on DLA to be used repeatedly as a form of everyday household finance. Indeed, the assumption that disability related benefits can be used for energy payments is highly flawed, given the many other claims being made on these benefits.
Copies of the report summary, full report and annexes can be downloaded here
Fuel poverty summary (PDF 
, 175kb)
Fuel poverty report (PDF , 791kb)
Fuel poverty annex A (PDF , 716kb)
Fuel poverty annex B (PDF , 1,164kb)
Notes to editors:
This research was funded by eaga Charitable Trust, an independent grant-giving trust that currently supports projects and research that contribute to combating fuel poverty and ensuring that energy services are fair and accessible for all groups in society.
The Trust was founded by Eaga - now Carillion Energy Services - in 1993. Since the inception of eaga Charitable Trust, Eaga (which is now part of Carillion plc as Carillion Energy Services) has donated over £3.3 million to the Trust, which the Trust has used to give grants for action and research projects.