TY - JOUR

T1 - Living with fuel poverty in older age

T2 - coping strategies and their problematic implications

AU - Chard, Rose

AU - Walker, Gordon Peter

PY - 2016/8

Y1 - 2016/8

N2 - Fuel poverty is a problem particularly associated with the lives and living conditions of older people, in part because of their vulnerability to health impacts. This article draws attention to the ways in which older people on low incomes cope with and adapt to problems of affording to keep warm at home. We present findings from interviews with 17 households during the winter of 2012–2013 in England. The importance of keeping warm was recognised across the interviews. Four particular categories of coping strategies were defined and used—responsively adjusting the length of time and parts of the home for which heating is kept on, using secondary heating sources; using additional layers that help to keep bodies warm; and adjusting daily routines. We found that it was rare for people themselves to problematize the ways in which they were coping day to day, they largely just saw this as what they did to get by and to control the size of their energy bills. Coping strategies raise questions about what are acceptable living conditions, how judgments are made and how assistance can be provided when householders do not themselves problematize their situation. Implications for action to tackle fuel poverty are considered.

AB - Fuel poverty is a problem particularly associated with the lives and living conditions of older people, in part because of their vulnerability to health impacts. This article draws attention to the ways in which older people on low incomes cope with and adapt to problems of affording to keep warm at home. We present findings from interviews with 17 households during the winter of 2012–2013 in England. The importance of keeping warm was recognised across the interviews. Four particular categories of coping strategies were defined and used—responsively adjusting the length of time and parts of the home for which heating is kept on, using secondary heating sources; using additional layers that help to keep bodies warm; and adjusting daily routines. We found that it was rare for people themselves to problematize the ways in which they were coping day to day, they largely just saw this as what they did to get by and to control the size of their energy bills. Coping strategies raise questions about what are acceptable living conditions, how judgments are made and how assistance can be provided when householders do not themselves problematize their situation. Implications for action to tackle fuel poverty are considered.

KW - Fuel poverty

KW - Coping strategies

KW - Cold

KW - Older people

U2 - 10.1016/j.erss.2016.03.004

DO - 10.1016/j.erss.2016.03.004

M3 - Journal article

VL - 18

SP - 62

EP - 70

JO - Energy Research and Social Science

JF - Energy Research and Social Science

SN - 2214-6296

ER -