A household is considered to be fuel poor if they are living in a property with an energy efficiency rating of band D or below, and after heating their home to an adequate level, they are below the official poverty line.
This redefinition lifted 6% of UK households out of fuel poverty, and was criticised at the time by the cross-party Commons environmental audit committee for moving the goal posts instead of alleviating the problem.
[4] Previously, and still used in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, the definition of fuel poverty was based on whether a household needed to spend more than 10% of their income on energy bills to heat their home to an adequate level of warmth.
[8] 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.
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 31 March, once the worst of the winter was over.
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.
[18] Lower totals in subsequent years were followed by a rise back to 31,100 excess deaths in the winter of 2012–2013, of whom 25,600 were aged 75 or older, resulting in the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government being criticised for not exercising tighter control over UK energy companies.
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.
Caroline Abrahams of Age UK said that energy prices would lead to almost a third of older households, roughly 3 million homes getting into fuel poverty.
[20] Peter Smith of National Energy Action stated in December 2022 that people were contacting them desperately worried about staying warm.