Despite the extension of the government’s energy bills support scheme, millions of people will still struggle to pay their energy bills.
We look at the glaring inequalities between those in fuel poverty and those who aren't, and have used our data to show who lives in a typical home with different levels of energy costs.
Five million households will be in fuel poverty in England and Wales, spending over 10% of their income on energy bills. Of these 1 million will spend over 20%, pushing them into extreme fuel poverty.
Households in fuel poverty:
- Are home to over 2.4 million children
- Half are home to a disabled person and
- Around 40% have someone aged over 65.
We're calling on the government to fund a street-by-street insulation programme, to lower people's bills and lower climate emissions from home heating.
What would a 40% energy bill leave you with?
160,000 households spend 40% of their disposable income on energy.
Use our calculator to see what you would be left with after spending 40% of your monthly income on your energy bill.
Extreme fuel poverty
These pie charts highlight some of the inequalities between those living in extreme fuel poverty, paying over 20% of their income on energy bills, with those who aren't.
Almost two-thirds of people in extreme fuel poverty don't qualify for means-tested benefit payments, but they're far more likely to be on a pre-payment meter, to be disabled, and to be over 65.
These are the people really struggling with their energy bills whilst the oil and gas companies make record-breaking profits.
What's left after energy bills have been paid?
Our graph shows typical examples of how much of their annual income people have left after paying their energy bills. They highlight the huge disparity between those spending less than 5% of their disposable income on heating their homes, those spending between 10-20%, and those living in extreme fuel poverty.
Click on the sections of the graph to see the average amounts spent and what income they're left with.
A snapshot of those paying the most and least for their bills
The bubbles below are sized to show the number of households spending those amounts of their income on their energy bills. Each bubble contains information about the people living in these homes.
Click on each bubble to see the number of people, number of children, and number of individuals receiving disability benefits, as well as average income and energy bills and households using pre-payment meters.
Households with different levels of energy spending
We've looked at the data for groups of people paying different amounts of their income on energy bills, in particular their age, health, type of home and the amount of insulation they have, their income and the number of adults and children in each household.
Below we describe some of the typical characteristics of a household across each of the levels of energy spending, from those not in fuel poverty spending less than 5% of their income on energy, to those most severely affected spending over 40%.
Not in fuel poverty: less than 5% of income spent on energy bills
A couple both with well-paid jobs and with 2 school-aged children. They own their semi-detached home. Their energy costs are low because their home is well-insulated and they don’t need to heat it during the working week when everyone is at school and work.
Fuel poverty: 10-20% of income spent on energy bills
A couple with one teenage child, one working full-time in a low-paid job as a care assistant and the other working part-time hours in a shop. They rent a semi-detached house in the private-rented sector. They don’t receive benefit payments. Their heating is gas, and their bill is above average because of poor energy efficiency in their badly insulated home.
Extreme fuel poverty: 20% of income spent on energy bills
A couple, one retired on a state pension with a small amount of private pension and the other not working, but not yet pension age. They don't receive benefit payments. They're heating their owned detached home with gas. Their house has average to poor levels of insulation, around EPC level D. They spend much of their time at home, which means high energy costs.
The worst fuel poverty: 40% of income spent on energy bills
A disabled pensioner living alone in a rural, owner-occupied, detached property. They don't have a mortgage, but they heat their home using oil and have an electricity pre-payment meter which increases their energy costs. They receive some benefit payments but have a very small income. They're likely to need high levels of heating due to poor insulation and spending large amounts of time at home, because of their age and disability.
10 locations with highest levels of fuel poverty
While there are likely to be people spending more than 10% of their incomes on soaring energy bills in every area, we analysed the data to find where there are the highest concentrations of people living in fuel poverty.
These are the 10 locations with the highest levels of fuel poverty across England and Wales, ranked by total number of neighbourhoods experiencing fuel poverty. When we rank them by the proportion of neighbourhoods in each area, the top 10 changes.
As the map below shows, there are neighbourhoods scattered across both countries where people are spending over 10% of their income on energy bills. And there are many other individual households in fuel poverty, even if most of their neighbourhood isn't.
Fuel poverty hotspots map
The energy crisis and how to solve it
