Background

Individual European countries take different approaches in developing responses to address fuel poverty. However any fuel poverty strategy will generally provide some form of financial assistance with energy bills and some form of negotiation between consumer and supplier.

In France, there is a fund called Fonds Solidarit Logement in each Dppartement which is used to identify and help people who are in debt to their energy supplier The amount of funding dedicated to payment of fuel debt totalled some 45 million euros in 2004. Since January 2005, a special tariff produit de premirre nccessit has been established to assist low-income households.

Until now in Spain, fuel poverty has not been considered a problem to face up. People that can not pay the energy bill only has one option: to ask for monetary help to religious or social organisations that provide different kinds of assistance. Not to pay the energy bill, it means that electric or gas utilities disconnect the supply, and don't reconnect it until the bill is paid. In Spain one of the most active religious organisations is Caritas (with the Economic Aid Service), but also there are some municipalities providing some kind of social services to people needing them.

In Italy, the Authority of Energy Electricity and Gas is the institutional actor that rules about the energy bills. It decide even on "social bills", in other words it has to fix criteria to estimate them or financial and political instruments to solve that problem. A normative instrument still exists, but a very few Municipalities used it. This is clearly a matter of information and awareness of policies, instruments, opportunities, from the institutional level to the end users' one.
Energy bills, in particular for gas consumption in the residential sector, are very important in the personal budget of Italian families. They have average costs of about 900 Euro each year. So, it is very important to define, according with the Authority mentioned, and the support of every stakeholder involved better policies to tackle the problem.
In England, there is limited financial assistance for households in fuel debt. In certain circumstances a Crisis Loan may be made for the purpose of paying energy bills but this money will have to be repaid to the Department for Work and Pensions. Several of the major energy supply companies have established charitable trusts that make grants to their customers for the purpose of paying off debt (not exclusively fuel debt). However companies are required to treat customers in debt in a sensitive manner and any arrangements for debt recovery must take account of the consumer's ability to pay.

In Belgium, there is a funds called « Fonds Energie » in the Walloon Region which identify and help people who are in "energy payment arrears". The social funds dedicated to "energy payment arrears" represented in 2004 about 4 million euros a year.
There is also a funds called "Mebar", dedicated to urgent investment to bring the minimal comfort to people in situation of fuel poverty (new glazing, new window frame, new heating stove). This funds represented in 2005 about 1.9 million euros a year.
A special tariff in electricity power «tariff social »has been set up since more than 10 years to low-income people. All the municipalities have to establish, by the Belgian law, the count off free residence (no water use, no energy consumption, no registered people since at least 12 months), but it is not updated and not used for their social policy.
Most off the "public centers for social action" (CPAS - Centre public d'action sociale) linked to the municipalities, have engaged, since 2002, some specific actions in the field of fuel poverty, called "guidance énergétique sociale", to assist people in situation off fuel poverty to reduce their energy bill. Those actions are coordinated by the Walloon Union of Municipalities (Union des Villes et Communes de Wallonie - UVCW).


Project co-funded by the european Union under the EIE programme - contrat EIE/06/158/SI2.447367