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Client received bill for £254.52 but he had prepayment meter. Phoned company who then explained that wrong data had been input. Debt was cleared.

 

Client received bill for £182.00 but he only has an income of £60 per week & he was struggling to pay this. Negotiated with company to install a prepayment meter & repay the debt at £3.47 per week.

 

Client received a bill for £66.25 but had prepayment meter. I queried this and was advised that it was incorrect. Client was actually in credit & didn't owe anything. The debt was cleared.

 

Client's meter was set at £17.30 per week to repay debt. Negotiated with company as client only in receipt of benefit. Weekly repayments reduced to £5.80.

Empowering People Plus

The Scottish Power Energy People Trust has funded ILS to provide energy efficiency advice enabling vulnerable residents of Dumfries & Galloway to maximize their finances and sustain their energy payments.

The project is named The Empowering People Plus Project and commences on 1st March 2012.

The target groups are families with children, young people, lone parents and vulnerable people aged over 16. There will be a particular emphasis on the excluded or isolated such as: those leaving care, people with disabilities, low income household and older people.

ILS has experienced staff in both energy efficiency and health and social care and has been vetted through PVG.

The service is free of charge.


What We Offer

Juggling between heating and eating?

We can empower you to:

We also provide advocacy and conciliation services and will support you to effectively manage your finances

Home draughty or hard to heat?

We can:

Finding it hard to stay warm in bed?

For the most vulnerable we can usually arrange a warm bedding pack free of charge.

Finding it hard to cope with managing a tenancy?

We can:


Who can apply

Anyone over 16 years old living in Dumfries & Galloway who finds it hard to keep ‘affordably warm’.

Officially that is anyone who spends more than 10% of their income on fuel.

For example, if you earned around £70 per week and would need to spend £7 or more on fuel to keep warm, you would fall into that category.


How to apply

You can:


Previous experience in delivering Fuel Advice

ILS has 5 years experience in delivering fuel advice in Dumfries & Galloway. The Scottish Power Energy People Trust funded ILS to deliver a fuel advice project for 3 years. This ran from 1st October 2007 until 31st September 2010 and was called the Empowering People Project. Due to the success of this project ILS secured funding from Fairer Scotland to provide fuel advice to the socially isolated and vulnerable over 60s in the Region of Dumfries & Galloway for 2 years. This project commenced 1st April 2010 and will close on 31st March 2012.


Some examples of our successes

A client was advised that she was to pay £61 per week for her electric but only lived in a one-bedroom bungalow. We investigated resulting in her bill being reduced to £30 per week, which included some towards a repayment of debt. This made a saving of £31 per week.

A client wanted a pre-payment meter for her gas installed to help her budget her money. She was advised that there would be a £250 charge, as Transco did not own the meter. We explained that the client was a single parent on a very low income. The utility company agreed to waive the charge.

One young woman had found the courage to be free of an abusive partner but was left with an electric meter that had been 'rigged' up. The utility company installed the meter correctly and waived the fee given the circumstances.


Some Feedback from our Service Users

At the beginning of 2010 during the particularly cold spell we provided some high tog quilts , fleece under blankets and fleece throws/blankets for some service users. Their appreciation was expressed as:

“......it’s the warmest I’ve been my bed for weeks – thank you”

“......the kids are a lot warmer watching TV so I don’t have to turn up the heating when I can’t afford it”

"Thanks,  it's a god send, thank you so so much, it's nice to be surrounded by warm kindness and thoughts"


Accolades

ILS was asked by The Scottish Power Energy People Trust to represent them at a Reception held at the House of Commons on the 31st March 2009. The reception was hosted by; NEA (National Energy Action) . This is an Annual Event to promote its partnership with Government, the business community and other agencies in the voluntary and public sectors. The Rt Hon Ed Milliband MP, the then Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) was one of the podium speakers. ILS along with one other project funded by ScottishPower was asked to do a presentation of their projects. This was well received by those in attendance since the presentation focused on examples of the impact on real people on very low incomes.

The Scottish Power Energy People Trust also put the Empowering People Project forward for a National Business Community Award called: Building Stronger Communities Award which is based on recognising innovative partnerships between business and the third sector which have built the resilience of community based charities, community groups or social enterprises and contributed to the regeneration of neighbourhoods.

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