The cost-of-living: how data can help tackle the crisis
Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2025 5:11 am
The ODI’s report focused on the cost-of-living crisis and how data can aid in the current crisis. Pulling together a significant number of key groups and organisations that work in the area of poverty and poland rcs data cost of living, the report highlighted some of the ways in which current data can shed light on the cost-of-living crisis and also some of the gaps in the data and area which could be improved.
Gaps in the data
The ways in which available datasets can often exclude many of those who are suffering from different types and levels of poverty. This could be due to a number of factors including:
Official definitions of poverty (such as fuel poverty) can exclude those who we might intuitively include in such groups. Fuel poverty is defined in England as an individual living in a property with an energy performance certificate of band D or below who fall below the poverty line after fuel cost. This means that people in low-income households who live in higher EPC-rated buildings are excluded from the official statistics, regardless of how their energy bills affect their income and expenditure. Interestingly this extra requirement is not included in the statistics in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland.
Gaps in the data
The ways in which available datasets can often exclude many of those who are suffering from different types and levels of poverty. This could be due to a number of factors including:
Official definitions of poverty (such as fuel poverty) can exclude those who we might intuitively include in such groups. Fuel poverty is defined in England as an individual living in a property with an energy performance certificate of band D or below who fall below the poverty line after fuel cost. This means that people in low-income households who live in higher EPC-rated buildings are excluded from the official statistics, regardless of how their energy bills affect their income and expenditure. Interestingly this extra requirement is not included in the statistics in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland.