Housing quality, health and fuel poverty among US seniors

Using the American Housing Survey (AHS), this study compared two groups of seniors, namely fuel poor (FP) households and non-fuel poor (NFP) households (N=6604). In this study, the FP group is defined as comprising households that must spend approximately 3.8% of its household income on heating, based on natural gas consumption on heating. The results show that seniors in the FP group paid significantly higher heating costs while earning much less in income compared to those in the NFP group. The respondents in the FP group were more likely to be older, females, widowed, comprising single-person households and in poorer health, compared to those in the NFP group. The FP households tend to live in houses that are 10 years older and 138 square foot (12.8206 m(2)) smaller with worse building envelope quality than the NFP households. The income of nearly half of these seniors suffering fuel poverty records just above the income standards of the energy support programmes, and hence they spend considerable amount of their income on heating. This is one of the main reasons why many seniors in the U.S. experience fuel poverty. The results of this study can help inform policy regarding future services for those U.S. seniors who experience FP.