A recent analysis by a team of researchers from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has found that people living in fuel poverty have been continuing to rise since the past decade.

It has been told by the team that a family is said to be living under fuel poverty if it needs to spend more than its total income on heating and powering their home. Also, Professor Hills has discovered that fuel poverty causes problems such as respiratory or cardiovascular diseases and is leading to high number of deaths in the UK.

After the survey, the team has revealed that while 7.8 million people in the year 2009 were found to live in fuel poverty. The number is being expected to rise up to 8.5 million by 2016. The team also revealed that it had conducted the survey with an aim is to tackle the problem of price rise by the “big six” energy companies.

As per the findings, the plan would not involve rich people with high energy bills or poor families with low bills, says the team. “The time has come for the government to step up and to invest to help the fuel-poor households through a major expenditure and an extensive insulation programme”, says Maureen Mitchell.