The population of the UK is ageing. By 2035, 23 per cent of the population is projected to be aged 65 and over.
The project is utilising the Age Action Alliance (AAA) as a means of identifying and supporting older households on fuel poverty and energy efficiency issues. It is identifying best practice for DECC ahead of the Green Deal and ECO commencing and will join up the fuel poverty and energy saving ambitions of DECC with DWP’s new indicators of material deprivation for older people introduced in their Family Resources Survey.
Given that 59% of the current older population in England is living in fuel poverty, the transition to the Green Deal and ECO must ensure that a range of partners and trusted groups who support older people are engaged in the fuel poverty debate and its solutions. They must understand the needs of their client group, their current perceptions and behaviour in relation to fuel usage/energy efficiency and have the knowledge to support their service users to take up the energy efficiency assistance available to them through the Green Deal and ECO.
The project is utilising the Age Action Alliance (AAA) as a means of identifying and supporting older households on fuel poverty and energy efficiency issues. It is identifying best practice for DECC ahead of the Green Deal and ECO commencing and will join up the fuel poverty and energy saving ambitions of DECC with DWP’s new indicators of material deprivation for older people introduced in their Family Resources Survey.
It is apparent from delivery of current energy efficiency programmes that fuel-poor households do not always recognise that they are living in fuel poverty and do not always present themselves to the agencies that can support them. As such, there is also a role for NEA and other Age Alliance partners to capture the views and perceptions of older, fuel-poor households so that the Green Deal and in particular ECO marketing material, conveys messages that will appeal to the target group and encourage them to take up the energy efficiency support being offered.
The research is:
- Establishing how existing services to older people can be built on or developed, and knowledge amongst service providers improved to support the delivery of new policies (Green Deal/ECO) and offer guidance to older households
- Testing Green Deal and specifically ECO concepts among older people and identify where responses, attitudes and beliefs of older people differ to what is currently understood about measures take-up, communication strategies and affordable warmth amongst this cohort
- Creating a platform from which capacity within the public, private and voluntary sectors to give advice and support to older households on fuel poverty/energy efficiency and the programmes open to them (Green Deal and ECO) can be increased.This will be achieved through the through the creation of sustainable ‘Older People’s Energy Efficiency Hubs’.
Contact
Maria Wardrobe, Director of External Affairs
Helen Stockton, Research Officer