Energy poverty’s mental health harms are about more than money
A University of ÑÇÖÞ²ÊƱ¹ÙÍø study has found that the negative effects of energy poverty on mental health are not only related to income stress and therefore differ depending on how energy poverty is defined.
Credit: SHVETS Production.
Lead author Dr Rubayyat Hashmi, from the University’s Australian Centre for Housing Research, compared the impacts of monetary energy poverty, measured through energy expenditure and income, and self-reported energy poverty, which is a measure of perceived energy-related hardship or wellbeing.
A person is defined as experiencing monetary energy poverty if 10 per cent or more of their household income goes to energy bills, or if their energy costs exceed the population me