The Energy Bills Support Scheme was a £400 discount paid monthly to 28 million eligible households in Great Britain. The payments of £66 or £67 were credited directly to energy accounts for people who pay by Direct Debit or Standing Order or cash on receipt of bill.

For prepayment meter customers, their electricity supplier had to issue them with a fuel voucher each month. This could have been sent via text message or email, or as a paper voucher issued through the post.

Around 2 million vouchers sent to prepayment customers have not yet been redeemed, and are due to expire on the 30th of June.

If you are a prepayment meter customer and you have unredeemed fuel vouchers, then don’t delay, take them to your usual top-up shop and credit them to your account before the end of the month.

If you’ve missed any of the six monthly vouchers due to support your energy bills between October 2022 and March 2023, then speak to your energy supplier as a matter of urgency, and ask for them to be reissued to you.

Fuel Bank Foundation has created a webpage explaining how the scheme worked, who to contact, and also offers to make contact with energy suppliers on behalf of anybody who is struggling to make contact themselves. Read more here: www.fuelbankfoundation.org/ebss

We welcomed last week’s highly anticipated announcement from Ofgem, that the Price Cap will reduce from the 1^st of July. While we don’t want to be killjoys, the new average annual energy bill of £2,074 is still approximately double what it was before the start of the Gas Crisis. And we still had clients struggling when the typical bill was £100 per month. So we are a long way away from seeing any kind of return to normality.

The headlines for us are as follows:

Nothing is changing till the 1^st of July

With every Ofgem announcement, we receive enquiries from people confused about why nothing’s changed on their energy accounts. Ofgem always makes its announcement with at least a month to go before any changes take effect.

The typical monthly payment due for combined gas and electricity will be around £175

This is based on an average annual consumption of 12,000 kilowatt hours for gas, and 2,900 kilowatt hours for electricity. Check your bills to see what your annual consumption is. If yours is higher, then you’ll pay more.

Prepay gas meter customers need to keep topping up through summer

If you pay by direct debit, you’re protected from seasonal variation as you overpay in the summer and underpay in the winter. If you use a prepay meter then you have no such protection, and your bills will rise significantly in the winter months. Some residents are happy to accept this, as they get to pay nothing during the summer. However, the average daily rate is staying at 29p for gas meters, which is £8.80 per month. If you’ve turned off your heating and think you won’t need to top-up again till September/October, you may well find your meter is in arrears, and you’ll need to clear this before any money you top-up actually provides you with gas. We have clients falling into this trap every Autumn. We would encourage everybody to keep topping up as much as they can, as often as they can, to protect against this, and maybe even provide themselves with a bit of a financial cushion against the coming Winter.

Switching is returning, slowly…

Some energy suppliers have dabbled with tariffs that are better than the Price Cap. But these tend to be only for existing customers, and limited in terms of how many people can take advantage of them. Some suppliers have announced tariffs available to customers of other suppliers. These are unlikely to be promoted via price comparison websites, so customers will likely need to approach suppliers directly. We’ve already heard anecdotally of some unscrupulous conduct, with door-knockers encouraging residents to fix to deals that aren’t the best choice financially. We’ll always advise against doorstep selling of energy. The best deal cannot be calculated right now, without an accurate picture of how many kilowatt hours the household uses per year, and ideally some better idea of what the Price Cap is going to be in October and January. Cornwall Insights (the team that Martin Lewis uses for his energy predictions) suggest our bills are likely to drop a little in October, and rise a little in January. So if you do want to fix for peace of mind, then you’re probably going to be safe if you fix around the level of the upcoming price cap, which looks like this:

Please note these prices will vary by region and we’ve not yet seen what that will mean for Cheshire & Merseyside

You can read the statement from Ofgem here: https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications/customers-pay-less-energy-bills-summer

The King has been crowned, every week seems short with bank holidays and there is sunshine in the back garden… May is here!

The heating is (for the most part) off, making this the perfect time to prepare for next winter. There is no stopping for Energy Projects Plus in the mission to help struggling community members to improve energy efficiency, tackle fuel poverty, and reduce carbon emissions. 

In this issue you will find: A Trusted Hands Film, a big hug, project updates, partner events, case studies and more.

Enjoy,

Melanie 

Do you know someone who needs a HUG?

• The second round of the “Home Upgrade Grant” (HUG) is available in Cheshire East, Cheshire West & Chester, Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St. Helens, and Wirral, with an incredibly generous £25,000 maximum spend per property, on such energy efficient home improvement measures as insulation (loft, room-in-room, cavity wall, solid wall, under-floor), renewable technologies (solar photovoltaic (PV) panels) and low carbon heating (air source heat pumps).

Eligibility

• Homes must be using anything other than mains gas as their primary heating source (they can be connected to the gas network for cooking, or even for a gas fire or two, but not for central heating).
• Households must be on a low income*
• Properties must have an Energy Performance Certificate rating of D**, E, F or G. You can check this here: www.epcregister.com

• You receive an income related benefit (for example, Universal Credit, Pension Credit Guarantee, Council Tax Support, income-related Employment and Support Allowance, or Tax Credits)
• Your total combined annual household income before tax, National Insurance and other deductions is no more than £31,000
• Your total combined annual household income before tax, National Insurance and other deductions is no more than £20,000 after your housing costs have been deducted (by housing costs, we mean mortgage payments, rent payments and Council Tax)

1. Your total household income is below £30,000
2. Your total household income is above £30,000 but below the “minimum income” indicated using this online minimum income calculator: www.minimumincome.org.uk 

** Funding for D-rated properties is limited.

Either apply directly via the relevant Local Authority, or call our Save Energy Advice Line free on 0800 043 0151 if you have further questions, or would like assistance in applying.

The TechKnow project is designed to empower Wirral residents to ‘do digital’ their own way, safely. Energy Projects Plus is ready to help our community make sense of technology and resources related to saving energy, saving water, and reducing their carbon footprint.

With more and more essential services going online, digital knowhow is a life skill worth learning. To try to make energy, water, and carbon awareness services easier and more accessible for everyone, Energy Projects Plus is delivering a series of ‘Digital Drop-In Events’ to help navigate a set of useful links to give residents the support they need to make their digital life that little bit easier.

If you would like Energy Projects to join you for a digital inclusion event, or have any questions about the project, please email melanie.nolan@epplus.org

Mental Health Awareness

The cost of living crisis has caused a significant increase in households and individuals facing mental health issues. As a result Energy Projects Plus is expecting to seen an increase in the number of our clients facing these issues. 
 
We want to ensure that staff attending community events and home visits are more able to recognise clients who are struggling and be aware of how to offer our services in a way that enables them to engage to their best advantage.
 
As a result we have enrolled the majority of our staff on the Level 2 Certificate in Understanding Mental Health Problems, funded by the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority.

We hope this course will help our already skilled Energy Advisors develop their understanding of mental health and the causes of mental distress.

Thanks to funding from British Gas Energy Trust, our Liverpool Affordable Warmth project can support vulnerable residents to keep warm and get their bills back on track.

Energy Projects Plus has worked with British Gas Energy Trust since 2014, helping some of our region’s most vulnerable residents to access funds that can reduce/clear their fuel debts. This can lead households to better manage their finances in future, by providing them with an invaluable ‘clean slate’ alongside the energy efficiency advice and support that we provide to all clients.

This in-depth, detailed fuel debt work we undertake can lead to financial benefits that are life-changing for our clients. In some cases it can potentially be life-saving.

British Gas Energy Trust has produced “Trusted Hands” which provides an overview of how organisations like Energy Projects Plus work to provide these solutions to clients.

To learn more about our British Gas Energy Trust funded project, click here: https://www.epplus.org.uk/projects/liverpool-affordable-warmth/

To enquire about support for yourself or another person, or to find out more about our other projects, call our Save Energy Advice Line free on 0800 043 0151, or email advice@epplus.org.

LEAP Boiler Scheme back open!

The LEAP Boiler Scheme runs each year from September through to the end of March, unless funds are exhausted earlier. But we’re delighted to confirm this scheme has reopened. It will close again to referrals on Wednesday 31st May, or until funds are exhausted.

The scheme is available to qualifying residents that have received a LEAP (Local Energy Advice Partnership) home visit, which are delivered across Merseyside and Cheshire by Energy Projects Plus. Eligible residents are vulnerable homeowners on a low income, and/or in receipt of means-tested benefits. The scheme will cover the repair or replacement of mains gas central heating boilers, which are broken or faulty at the time of a visit conducted by a Gas Safe Registered heating engineer.

Referrals for the LEAP Boiler Scheme can be made on our ‘general referral form’ available here: www.epplus.org.uk/referrals

Save Energy Advice Line: 0800 043 0151

Thanks to additional recruitment, and continuing improvement in the weather, we’re pleased to report a general reduction in the average waiting time for residents accessing our services. We are still prioritising enquiries relating to vulnerable residents either without heat, or at risk of self-disconnection, or living in homes with damp and mould. All other clients will be supported on a first-come, first-served basis.

In addition to our telephone advice, we’re able to deliver home visits across Merseyside and Cheshire, where we offer advice, practical demonstrations (e.g. how to set your home’s central heating controls), and assess eligibility for other help such as white goods, fuel top-up support, and access to further grants that may be available. Thanks to the government’s “Home Upgrade Grant”, “Boiler Upgrade Scheme”, “Energy Company Obligation” and the “Great British Insulation Scheme”, this can include free insulation, low carbon heating and even solar panels.

CLICK HERE to refer a client for a home visit

FREE Wirral Lifelong Learning Courses by Energy Projects Plus

Do you know a Wirral community or group of residents who want to save money on their energy bills?

Energy Projects Plus can help! We have funding to offer Lifelong Learning Workshops for Wirral residents. The aim of these courses is to save learners money and help them address any issues or answer any questions they may have about home energy.

Our qualified tutor will come to your venue with all the materials needed to train your community.

Here is an outline of our most popular course:

“Taking Control of your Energy Bills”

2-Hour Workshop

Learning Outcomes:
•Understanding the energy crisis, energy tariffs and payment methods
•Identify recommendations and money saving opportunities on your home’s Energy Performance Certificate
•Understanding your Energy Bill, is a smart meter right for you?
•List the “Top Tips” for reducing household energy bills, which could save learners up to £581 a year!

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**NEW** “Saving Money On Energy” 1-Hour Workshop!!

Just an hour to spare? If so, we can cut right to the chase and focus on the list of “Top Tips” to save energy!

Let our tutor and trained energy advisor can go through the home, room by room, to give energy saving tips and advice to bring down energy costs by up to £581 a year!

Learning Outcomes:
•Top tips so save money on home energy

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These courses are free for Wirral residents, funded by Wirral Lifelong Learning. Courses are available to book Mondays or Tuesdays through June 2023.

With energy bills at an all time high, it is important to understand what we can do to reduce our energy use. We can’t do much these days about the price per kilowatt hour (kWh), but what we can do is learn how to be more savvy!

If you have a venue and a group of 5 or more residents interested in saving money on their energy bills, we would like to offer you a course.

Funding and availability is limited.

For more information on offering a Lifelong Learning Energy Course to your community email melanie.nolan@epplus.org

Melanie

EPPlus Do Events!

Do you have an event coming up? Energy Projects Plus are delighted to be able to serve our community by attending events like coffee mornings, drop in events, fun days, information sessions, environmental awareness events, conferences, open days, or any other event you may think of!

We can set up a stall giving advice, deliver a presentation, hold a 1-2 hour workshop. We can bring a long some free lightbulbs or even showcase our electric company car!

We offer advice on subjects such as: • fuel poverty • energy crisis • climate action • energy efficiency • renewable energy • saving water • damp and mould • help with energy bills • affordable warmth • smart meter advice • home energy and EPC’s

If you have an event coming up and would like Energy Project Plus to attend you can email all the details including date, time and type of event to events@epplus.org

Wirral Digital Inclusion

The TechKnow project is designed to empower Wirral residents to ‘do digital’ their own way, safely. Energy Projects Plus is ready to help our community make sense of technology and resources related to saving energy, saving water, and reducing their carbon footprint.

Energy Projects Plus has put together series of ‘Digital Drop-In Events’ to help give residents the support they need to make their digital life that little bit easier.

These events are running until the end of the month:

Monday 10:00am – 11:00am @ Open Door Charity, Bloom Building, 3 Abbey Close, Birkenhead, CH41 5FQ

Tuesday 2:00pm – 3:00pm @ The Community Village, New Chester Road, Rock Ferry, Wirral, CH42 1LE

To help us promote these events to those offline, please download and print out our poster: EPPlus TechKnow Poster Jan-Mar 2023

We are seeking new Wirral venues to hold Digital inclusion events. To enquire email melanie.nolan@epplus.org

Damp and Mould

In light of the tragic death of Awaab Ishak in Rochdale, which the coroner has linked with the presence of mould in the property, Energy Projects Plus is keen to work with partners to try to prevent a similar case from happening within Merseyside and Cheshire. To aid this, we have added “damp/mould” to the list of items on our General Referral form, here: www.epplus.org.uk/referrals so you can refer clients to us for help with damp/mould, even if they don’t need any further advice or support from us.

We have also decided these cases should be prioritised, and therefore we now have 3 priority groups:

•Vulnerable residents with no access to heat
•Low-income prepay customers at risk of self-disconnection
•Vulnerable residents living in homes with damp/mould

Wherever possible we will attempt initial contact with clients in any of these priority groups within a working day following receipt of referral. Referrals for clients not in any of these groups will be processed in date order, but there is likely to be a wait of several weeks before we’ll be able to speak with them.

What we can do

•We have advice on the topic of damp and mould, that anybody can access and share, here: www.epplus.org.uk/advice
•All of our energy advisors are trained and qualified to detect and identify the most common forms of damp, suggest possible causes, and provide recommendations.
•We can deliver advice and recommendations over the phone, or during a home visit. Please note, residents don’t need to keep mould to show us, they can take a photo to share with us, but should always wipe mould away quickly – preferably utilising a mould cleaner.
•We can create an “observation report” following a home visit, providing the resident with a written record of what we saw on the day. This can be shared by the resident with their landlord, where appropriate.

What we can’t do

•We do not have funding available to repair roofs, to fix leaky plumbing, or to repair external drainpipes. Referrals to us in these cases wouldn’t be appropriate as the resident is likely to know the cause of the damp, and we can’t assist with the solution.
•If a landlord is already involved in dealing with a damp/mould issue, there’s no need to refer the case to us as we’re likely to come to the same conclusions as the landlord.

Money Saving Expert Energy Announcement

As Martin Lewis advises here, bills may still be less affordable from April for a few months, as the £67 monthly reduction will cease.

But the current prediction is a 20% drop in July.

—

April as planned. We just wanted to give you a quick update on the energy market. The good news is the Government has confirmed it won’t be hiking bills by 20% from

MoneySavingExpert and Martin wrote to the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt asking him to postpone the rise, which would have taken a typical bill on the Energy Price Guarantee (EPG) – the state-subsidised rate almost everyone is paying right now – up to £3,000/year.

Our letter was backed by more than 110 charities and in today’s Budget the Chancellor confirmed the typical bill for someone paying by direct debit under the EPG would now stay at £2,500/year until July.

However, there will still be a rise for everyone in April as the Government’s £66/£67 a month energy support is ending. And what you actually pay will depend on your usage, where you live and your payment method.

To see the impact on your bills, check out our updated ‘What will I pay from April?’ calculator.

Bills are expected to drop in July

Energy bills are currently set by a combination of the Ofgem Price Cap and the EPG. The Price Cap is based on wholesale prices and sets a limit on what firms can charge for each unit of gas and electricity, with the Government discounting these rates if the Cap is above the EPG level of £2,500/year.

With wholesale prices falling rapidly, analysts at Cornwall Insight are predicting the Price Cap will be around £2,000/year for a typical household from July, so the EPG will no longer apply, and we can expect to see lower bills.

See Martin’s video explainer for what’s going to happen to bills in the next few months.

We are also hearing murmurings that fixed energy deals could be coming back in the near future, so we will be in touch then with an update and what you need to know.

The MSE Cheap Energy Club team

CASE STUDY
by Katie

“When myself and a colleague were attending an event in Liscard Cherry Tree Centre, a gentleman approached our table with quite a pessimistic demeaner. He said he felt isolated and abandoned by the governments assistance for households during COVID due to not being in receipt of benefits. The gentleman said he felt like he was drowning with the cost of living and couldn’t find help anywhere. I explained to him about the Wirral Council Direct Debit support fund and that the criteria didn’t stipulate that the claimant needed to be in receipt of benefits. Since the event the gentleman has sent me the relevant information and an application has been submitted to Wirral council for 6 months Direct Debit support that will offer the gentleman a total of £1100 if approved. The client was extremely grateful for any help at all as he had reached out to organisations previously and been turned away.”

Do you want to be at the heart of the drive to tackle fuel poverty and climate change?

These vacancies are currently available at Energy Projects Plus:

Energy Projects Plus were delighted to be invited to appear on ITV Granada Reports in a piece about the energy price cap increase and its impact on the cost of living.

An ITV News presenter and cameraman accompanied Ellie and Linda on a home energy visit to see first-hand how the advice we provide can help support people through the current challenges.

The piece appeared on the 6pm News on 1^st April – dubbed April Cruel Day by the media due to the 54% price cap increase coming into effect.

Watch again here:

https://www.itv.com/news/granada/2022-04-01/how-lives-have-been-changed-in-the-north-west-by-energys-april-cruel-day

Energy Projects Plus CEO, Peter Owen reflects on 2021 in this end of year message to our valued funders, referrers, patrons and partners. 

[VIDEO MESSAGE]

2021 has been another challenging year with the Covid-19 pandemic fundamentally changing how we and our partners operate our services. It has also led to ever increasing demand for our services.

Our teams have worked tirelessly throughout the year to support as many people as possible and will be taking a well-earned break over the Christmas and New Year period.

Our work has focussed on two areas: the climate emergency and fuel poverty. There is a clear connection between the two in that improving energy efficiency directly reduces fuel use thus lowering carbon emissions and fuel bills.

Over the year we have provided advice and other support to over 6,000 households.

We helped over 1,100 people apply for their £140 Warm Home Discount payment – an important support for vulnerable people to afford winter fuel bills.

We have directly issued 1,400 emergency fuel vouchers to people facing the direct risk of their lights and heating going off.

We made nearly 400 home visits to vulnerable residents to assist with issues ranging from broken heating systems or appliances, not knowing how to use or adequately control their heating system, understanding fuel bills or switching supplier, installing easy measures such as LED lightbulbs or radiator panels, and also to deliver emergency heaters to homes where no heat is present.

With our partners we have also trained 200 people in Carbon Literacy so that they have a greater understanding of what their impact on the environment is, and also how they can personally start to make changes for the better.

2022 will become even more difficult for those people struggling to afford their fuel bills as the cost of fuel is expected to rise overnight in April by over £40 per month. For those of us fortunate to be able to accommodate such an increase we must recognise that this will be unaffordable for many many people who will have two simple choices- switch off or face debt.

The excitement of COP26 in November ran parallel to the huge concerns raised by the serious rise in gas prices that now fills many people with dread for the new year.

This is where there is a direct crossover between fuel poverty and the climate emergency. The solution to both is to reduce our energy needs and demands, and thus our costs, through effective energy efficiency programmes underpinned by a comprehensive and credible advice and support service.

However, in the drive for a just transition there is no point in simply adding the huge cost of decarbonising homes onto all fuel bills as it will be the fuel poor who bear a disproportionate cost and may ultimately not escape the daily pressure of keeping warm and well at an affordable price.

As our charity reflects on our impact during 2021 we express our thanks to all our funders for their invaluable support, financial and other, as well as our partners in delivery and those 400 plus active referrers who are all committed to the same goals as our charity.

Our charity’s focus for 2022 is to build on our previous 25 years of action and increase our work around the interconnected issues of the climate emergency and fuel poverty. We see that deeper support to households across both themes will help achieve the lasting changes we need, and we look forward to working with partners, old and new, to make this aspiration a reality.

Energy Project Plus’ LEAP team are back providing a mix of full home energy visits, telephone advice calls and short follow up visits across Merseyside and Cheshire.

The usual support is available including free energy saving measures, support with switching energy tariff, advice on saving energy at home, warm home discount applications, priority service registration, benefits maximisation and more.

To be eligible for LEAP, residents need to be low income, have a health condition made worse by cold or another vulnerability. We can support owner occupiers, private renters and social housing tenants.

In addition, the following LEAP schemes have re-opened:

ECHO

Providing fully funded gas boiler repair or replacements.

To be eligible, the resident must be an owner occupier, in receipt of benefits, or eligible under their Local Authority Statement of Intent for Eco Flex.

The boiler must be fully broken, with the resident in, or intermittently in a no heat situation.

HEART

Providing fully funded replacement white goods – electric cookers, washing machine, fridges, freezers and fridge freezers.

To be eligible, the resident needs to be in receipt of benefits, or on a low income.

They can be owner occupiers, privately renting or social housing tenants, as long as they own the appliance and are responsible for paying their own energy bills.

There must be an existing appliance to replace and this needs to be at least 9 years old. It doesn’t need to be broken.

Please refer to the above schemes using our usual referral form