13 February 2009
By Mark Smulian
A programme designed to tackle fuel poverty has directed help to people who do not need it while omitting many who do, a National Audit Office probe has found.
The £852m Warm Front scheme secured high satisfaction ratings – up to 86% – from those it helped, the NAO’s February 4 report said.
But the Department of Energy and Climate Change’s use of benefit entitlements as proxies for eligibility meant the money was inefficiently targeted, with some £34m spent in households that were already relatively energy efficient.
The NAO found Warm Front helped to improve the energy efficiency of some 635,000 households between June 2005 and March 2008, leaving around 1.2 million in fuel poverty.
It said 57% of vulnerable households in fuel poverty did not claim the relevant benefits needed to qualify for Warm Front help. By contrast, almost 75% of households that did qualify were not necessarily in fuel poverty.
Edward Leigh, chair of the Commons Public Accounts Committee, said: ‘The households that have received help from the Warm Front Scheme are mostly very satisfied with the work done.
‘But many of those satisfied customers are not vulnerable families in fuel poverty, and over half of the genuinely fuel poor are ineligible for help.’
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