Fuel poverty

Fuel poverty is a serious and complicated issue, which energy suppliers are helping to tackle in a number of ways. A household is said to be in fuel poverty when its members cannot afford to keep their home adequately warm at a reasonable cost, given their income.

Fuel poverty in England is measured using the Low Income High Costs (LIHC) indicator. Under the LIHC indicator, a household is considered to be fuel poor if:

you have required fuel costs that are above average (the national median level)
if you spend that amount, you would be left with a residual income below the official poverty line

There are three important elements in determining whether a household is fuel poor:

household income
household energy requirements
fuel prices

If you have any questions or concerns that you are in fuel poverty then please contact us, your energy supplier or one of the dedicated services below.