Fuel Poverty Scenario Modelling based on Ofgem Energy Price Caps – up to October to December 2025

Annex B

The updated PAWHP eligibility criteria are primarily based on personal circumstances and is paid at the individual level. Conversely, while the SHS and SHCS collect data on individuals within a dwelling, its analysis is primarily focussed at the household level. Therefore, there are some limitations to modelling the number of households in receipt of PAWHP and the amount received.

Benefits

PAWHP is paid at an individual level which when summed with other householders add to either £203.40 or £305.10 in most cases. However, payment values will be different if the client or their partner get one of the following benefits, depending on whether they claim these benefits individually or jointly:

• Pension Credit
• Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA)
• Income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
• Income Support
• Universal Credit

Where someone receives Pension Credit, for example, (either individually or jointly) a single payment will be made to the lead claimant, and this will always be the maximum value available for the age bracket of those in that claim. While in practice this affects how funds are transferred to the household it has no effect on this analysis as the household will still receive the same amount, and fuel poverty is modelled on household not individual income. For example, two payments of £152.55 have the same effect on household income as one payment of £305.10. These households would fall into groups 13,14 and 15 in Annex B Table 12.

However, if the benefits claim is not a joint claim, DWP considers the living situation to be two households living under one roof. This means that the household member receiving benefits will receive the full amount for PAWHP while the other eligible members will receive the full amount of either £203.40 or £305.10 depending on their age. Due to this, as shown in Table 12 Annex B, some households (groups 16,17, 18) with individual benefits claims but more than one eligible householder can potentially receive more than £305.10 through PAWHP

Although benefits are collected at the individual level in the SHS the survey does not always gather specific information on each benefit aside from amount received, and person in receipt. Therefore, in this analysis we are unable to account for the difference between eligible benefits received as a joint claim, and those received individually.

Due to this we have assumed all claims are joint claims and capped the maximum amount received by households at £305.10. We have made this assumption in part, due to the fact that married couples are always considered a joint claim by DWP as they are expected to be one household.

Therefore, while most households with eligible benefits are likely to be joint claims this analysis may slightly underestimate the amount received by some households where these benefits are claimed individually.

Income

The SHCS collects self-reported income data from earnings and benefits on a net (after tax, National Insurance and pension contributions, union dues etc) basis. However, eligibility for the PAWHP is based on a gross income of less than £35,000. Therefore, for this analysis we use an income figure of less than £30,443 [1] for an individual to be eligible as this represents the approximate net income an individual would receive if earning £35,000 on a gross basis, once income tax has been deducted [2]. As the SHCS does not include all the necessary information to accurately derive all deductions for net pay (such as taxes, employee pension contributions, taxable benefits etc) this analysis may slightly overestimate the income criteria and the number of eligible households.