A review of coping strategies employed by households in fuel poverty

Energywatch

Inclusion was commissioned to write a literature review that brought together current studies examining the budgetary and behavioural strategies that vulnerable, fuel-poor households employ to cope with fuel poverty and the impacts these have on welfare.

The purpose of the research was to identify whether a gap exists where energywatch could commission its own piece of research to contribute to this field of study.

Findings

The review found that only a small number of recent studies had focused on the coping strategies employed by fuel poor households, and although the findings from these could be supplemented by other more generic studies or by studies of particular measures to counteract fuel poverty (e.g. studies of energy efficiency measures), these were inadequate to fill the gap. In particular, the coping strategies employed by BME groups, people living in rural communities, and people living in private rented accommodation were largely absent from recent studies.

Further research is required and some recommendations were made about the type of research tools that would be required to undertake this, including the possible adaptation of the Ways of Coping Questionnaire which has featured in behavioural psychology studies since the mid 1980s. The review went on to find that the types of coping strategies employed by fuel poor households could be broken into three broad groups:

• reduced fuel use resulting in cold homes
• financial measures including cutting back on expenditure on food
• debt.

The type of measure selected by households varied according to their beliefs and values as much as a result of financial hardship and this complexity needed to be further researched. However, from the evidence currently available it appears that pensioner households and some lone parents were more likely to cut back on fuel use and on other areas of the household budget, while younger families and some lone parents were more likely to get into debt (either with fuel payments or with other forms of credit and arrears). Finally, we found that energy efficiency measures cut across the three types of coping strategy and could result in warmer homes, financial savings, or both depending on the type of measure and on its efficacy. However, there remain significant barriers to the take-up of energy efficiency measures, and also to means-tested benefits that may be able to assist, which are again linked to both the beliefs and values of the household as much as to other objective conditions.