Any domestic households that are struggling with their energy bills now face an even bigger gap between the total cost of their energy bills and what they can actually afford to pay. As a result of energy price increases the government has revealed that there is on average a gap of £438 between their totally energy bills combined and what they can actually afford to pay.
The massive gap is close to two hundred pounds more than it was a decade ago according the the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). The recent news comes after the DECC released its proposed definition of fuel poverty last month.
As a result of these findings the Government has released a statement that said if a household is to been deemed in fuel poverty then the total income is below the poverty line, with the total every costs are more than the average. This is of course taking into account the total energy costs for this household.
Just in England alone there is ment to be around £1.05 billion of energy bills that households simply can not afford to pay. This figure has almost doubled since ten years ago in 2003 when there was only £606,000,000 owed in energy bills that households could not afford to pay.
They have set the new definition of fuel poverty so that any support help available will only be to support the people and households that are most vulnerable. Last year the Government helped over 2,000,000 homes and cut their energy bills under the Warm Homes Discount scheme. This budget is set to increase over the next few years, allowing the government to help more people who are struggling from fuel poverty.
The government is said to be in talks with the big six energy suppliers to come up with a solution to make sure that the people struggling from fuel poverty are not on the most expensive energy tariffs. They are also asking they to simplify their tariffs and rate to make it easier for them to switch energy supplier in order to get a cheaper price.
Fuel poverty is becoming a widespread problem in the United Kingdom, with more people every year falling into the fuel poverty zone. The work that the government is undertaking should help many people that are in bad positions with their energy bills.
