We have published our revised Consumer Vulnerability Strategy for consultation. It will build on the earlier work of our previous strategy. Please contact us if you would like to provide input.
What is the Ofgem Consumer Vulnerability Strategy?
Our strategy has two roles:
- To guide Ofgem’s approach to understanding vulnerability – through evidence, research and market analysis – to help us set our priorities, develop and implement interventions and assess their effectiveness.
- To guide our expectations of supply and distribution companies to embed consideration of consumer vulnerability when they design and deliver products and services.
The new Consumer Vulnerability Strategy will outline our approach for the next 6 years. The draft strategy is informed by extensive stakeholder engagement, including events held in Cardiff, Glasgow and London, interviews with academics and other experts and responses to our open letter published in December 2018.
How we define Vulnerability
We define vulnerability as when a consumer’s personal circumstances and characteristics combine with aspects of the market to create situations where they are:
- significantly less able than a typical consumer to protect or represent his or her interests in the energy market
- significantly more likely than a typical consumer to suffer detriment, or that detriment is likely to be more substantial
Through the publications and update feed below you can access our publications and outputs produced in relation to the Consumer Vulnerability Strategy. This consultation will be open for eight weeks and close on 8 August 2019.