Government support prevented energy poverty for 500,000 Dutch households

Government support measures are estimated to have saved almost 500,000 households from energy poverty last year. Statistics Netherlands (CBS) and TNO reported this after joint research. Also, thanks to savings from lower usage, the percentage of households that lost a significant part of their income to high energy prices in 2022 and 2023 was lower than in 2019, which was long before the energy crisis.

Last year, when energy prices increased even further initially, the effect of the price ceiling and the energy surcharge was most visible. Without that support, around 6.7 percent of homes would have been ‘energy poor’; now, due to the measures, that number is estimated to be 4.8 percent (around 400,000 homes). The number of homes that experienced energy poverty was 8.6 percent in 2019 and 4.4% in 2022.

A home is described as having energy poverty when the people living there have relatively low incomes and spend much of their money on gas and electricity. Poorly insulated homes also fall under this category. Energy poverty has steadily decreased since 2019 due to increased incomes and better insulation of homes.

The historical decrease in energy usage, with a 10 to 15 percent decrease in 2022, was also an important factor in combating energy poverty. As a result, even without government support measures, energy poverty would have been lower in 2022 than in 2019, while it was an often-used word during the energy crisis, said CBS economist Peter Hein van Mulligen.

Energy prices have dropped firmly since the beginning of last year, but the government support measures have also now ended. TNO researcher Peter Mulder has said that what this will mean for energy poverty rates is unknown. “I would guess that it will increase slightly compared to last year, but it will still be lower than in 2019. We really don’t know.”

Energy poverty was higher in the areas of Noordoost-Groningen, Zuid-Limburg, and the cities of Rotterdam and The Hague compared to the rest of the country. According to TNO and CBS, this is because more people with lower incomes live in these places.

Limburg and Groningen also have many large homes that are not insulated sufficiently, meaning that these homes are vulnerable to rising energy prices.