Consumer impacts of market conditions survey: wave 5 (January to February 2024)
Reports, plans and updates
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Findings on the experiences of energy consumers. Topics include: affordability, support, preferred payment method and tariff, trust and energy market engagement.
Main points
- The proportion of households who are behind on household bills has fallen from 12% to 9%, despite general bill pressures remaining high.
- Energy bill pressures continue to have serious impacts, although down from one in three (33%) in July 2023, over a quarter (26%) of households still reduced spending on necessities, like food, due to the cost of energy.
- General trust in the energy sector remains low, however 60% of respondents now trust their own energy supplier to treat them fairly, an increase of 6% since July 2023.
- Levels of switching energy tariff or supplier were unchanged since the previous wave, only 21% said they were likely to switch in the next 3 months, a drop of 9% since July 2023 (30%).
- Many consumers report barriers to engaging with the energy market, 31% said that it is unlikely that cheaper deals are available and 18% said it takes a lot of effort to find deals.
- Consumers are still unclear about energy tariffs, the proportion who report they are on a fixed tariff (50%) is considerably higher than official figures suggest (11%).
Methodology
Ofgem commissioned BMG to run Wave 5 of the Household Consumer Impacts of Market Conditions Tracking Survey.
The survey took a mixed methods approach to data collection to ensure the inclusion of digitally excluded consumers. In total we reached 3,439 respondents. Quotas were set to achieve a sample representative of the population of Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) and set on gender, age, region, and socioeconomic group.
This research is intended to:
- measure overall consumer awareness, perceptions and experiences relating to changes in the energy market
- analyse how different audiences have been affected by these changes
- track how awareness, perceptions and behaviours vary over time