Is there a “heat or eat” trade-off in the UK?

8 June 2011: Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) research presents detailed household level expenditure data from older households merged with historical local weather information. The report looks to test “whether there is a  a heat or eat trade off: do households cut back on food spending to finance the additional cost of keeping warm during cold shocks? We find evidence that the poorest of older households are unable to smooth spending over the worst temperature shocks.”