Families at risk because of fuel poverty

8th April 2014

Families living in South Yorkshire are vulnerable to the effects of fuel poverty because of a complex network of factors and priorities, health and social care experts at Sheffield Hallam University have concluded.

The Warm Well Families project, conducted by the University's Centre for Health and Social Care Research and funded by Consumer Futures, Public Health Rotherham and Public Health Doncaster, explored factors influencing the decisions and behaviour of vulnerable households with children regarding keeping well and warm at home. Focusing on 35 households that had children who suffered from asthma in Rotherham and Doncaster, 109 parents, children, young people and health and social care professionals, took part in the study and were interviewed about their living habits. The research team found that families on low incomes and benefits have to manage many competing priorities such as bills, heating, household repairs, food supply and a child's health and wellbeing, with limited resources. In doing so, families are making 'trade-offs' as they decide how their money is best spent which in turn, is influencing their ability to make the best decisions and increasing the health risk to their children. Health and social care professionals therefore need to be aware of these trade-offs in order to better safeguard children, the research team concluded. Angela Tod, professor of health and social care at Sheffield Hallam, said: "We found that families are forced to spread their finances too thinly across all aspects of their living costs. It's not just a case of 'heat or eat' anymore, there are many other aspects for parents to consider and that's forcing them to make compromises that aren't necessarily beneficial. "The reality for most families living on a low income is that they are making sensible choices and do have the right priorities but it has now become one big balancing act and they are struggling to find the resources to help them keep warm." Cold, damp homes are linked to health problems and for children; a cold home increases the risk of lower educational attainment, emotional well-being and resilience. Being cold at home has negative impacts on their diet, nutrition and food choices and increases the risk of accidents and injuries in the home. Families who had a child with asthma were picked to take part in the study because a cold or damp home can aggravate their asthma. The bedrooms of the asthma sufferers and the main family living rooms were all fitted with a temperature and humidity monitor that provided hourly readings over two weeks. In some homes, the readings demonstrated that all bedrooms were below the 18°C minimum recommended temperature at some point with four of the bedrooms never hitting a healthy temperature. For the living rooms all were below the recommended 21°C minimum temperature at some point and three were never at a healthy temperature. A relative humidity of less than 50% is recommended for reducing mould and dust mites in homes - another contributing factor that can affect asthma. All homes had higher than recommended relative humidity for the maximum readings in both the bedrooms and living rooms. Eight homes had a higher than recommended relative humidity for the average readings in the child's bedroom and six for the living room. Four of these homes also reported damp problems. "There was a variation in knowledge about safe temperatures and avoiding asthma triggers. Parents are getting conflicting information from different sources," said Angela. "Some parents were aware that condensation caused by drying laundry contributed to damp. However, parents also acknowledged they were limited in their ability to reduce condensation and had few alternatives to drying clothes indoors. For example they may not have tumble dryers or be able to open windows for fear of triggering a child's asthma. "Parents told us that the advice they received was often unhelpful and sometimes confusing or contradictory. Work is needed with the authorities and agencies, like the energy companies and the Government, to educate them on how families are juggling household priorities and encourage them to provide more opportunities to help households heat their homes."