To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what recent estimate his Department has made of the (a) number and (b) percentage of pensioners living in fuel poverty; and if he will make a statement. (291374)

The Department’s latest estimates for fuel poverty are for 2006, available online at:

http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/what_we_do/consumers/fuel_poverty/strategy/annual_report/annual_report.aspx

These show that in 2006, there were around 2.4 million households in fuel poverty in England. Of those, around 1.3 million contained somebody over the age of 60, around 17 per cent. of all households containing somebody over 60.

Fuel poverty statistics are published at the household level and are not calculated at an individual person level. Figures on the number and percentage of individual pensioners in fuel poverty are therefore unavailable.