Being Warm Being Happy 
For the UK population as a whole there is a large body of evidence on the extent of
fuel poverty, sometimes identified as part of a wider phenomenon of “energy
vulnerability” or “energy poverty”. A principal motivation of researchers in this field is
to provide evidence demonstrating how living in a cold home is associated with
premature death and a wide range of mental and physical illnesses. But there is very
little evidence of the nature and extent of fuel poverty in the disabled population, and
virtually none at all for people with a learning disability. This is despite the fact that
people with a learning disability are at a greater risk of material deprivation than the
non-learning disabled population, and thus more likely to find it especially difficult to
avoid living in a cold home. No research to date has examined the fuel poverty
experience and influences for AWLD. This project was conducted to start to address this evidence gap. It is a participatory
project where University academics and AWLD, from Speakup Advocacy (referred to
as Speakup in the report), worked in partnership. Speakup is a voluntary sector
organisation based in Rotherham South Yorkshire. Please find the full report here. Being warm are on twitter @BeingWarm |