Recommendation 12

The Department said that even if it had wanted to, it would not have been able to target support at the time of introducing the schemes due to challenges with identifying household income to determine an appropriate level of support.26 Written evidence from the Energy Systems Catapult and Fair by Design highlighted a need for targeted support.27 To do this, the Department told us that it is now working with the Department for Work and Pensions to make best use of employment benefits data.28 It added that it is also working with the health service and local government to identify individuals in particular need of support alongside energy suppliers. The Department recognised that targeting support requires data linking to be effective, but highlighted “very significant technical and practical challenges” in doing so. It told us the “most difficult nut to crack” is still income data, which is collected on an individual level while energy usage is based on household consumption.29 The income data for self–employed individuals is also lagged, so it is “quite a long way out of date by the time it is fully organised”.30