Queensland Household Energy Survey 2023

Managing household bills

Managing household bills and coping with cost-of-living increases are a major concern for many respondents this year. Over half of households are now concerned about their ability to pay electricity bills (53% concerned rated 7-10), significantly higher than the 41% recorded in 2022. Renters and households on lower incomes (less than $31K) show higher levels of concern (64% and 65% concerned respectively).

There is also a sizeable expectation that electricity bills will continue to increase over the next three years, with 28% of respondents expecting the overall price of electricity to increase by more than 25%. Households also show increasing concern for their ability to pay other bills including for food and groceries (59% concerned, up from 51%) and mortgage and rent (49%, up from 39%).

Most households do not know which electricity tariff/plan they are on (66%), but for those who are aware, 63% believe they are on a flat rate tariff. The most motivating factor for households to investigate changing tariff options is receiving a high electricity bill (60%).

You can use the dropdowns to explore the results of each section in more detail. For most questions you can view the data by location, age group, solar PV ownership and other household characteristics. You can also select the “Trend” button to see how the overall results have changed over time.