Funded by The Big Lottery Fund for 3 years, we are in our 3rd year of delivering our Bill Busters project. The aim of the project is to address fuel debt in the borough and establish the Affordable Warmth Forum (AFW) to help create a sustainable offer of support for residents in fuel debt and poverty.

We support residents with grant applications for fuel debt clearance, negotiate affordable payment plans with their energy providers, apply for other grants for draughtproofing, central heating etc, and give energy efficiency advice. We developed a referral pathway and signpost clients for further support to multiple agencies.

The project has been a huge success, and the demand for the service has required us to recruit another member of staff to support the delivery of the programme through an uplift from the Lottery.

Below shows the fantastic outputs we have achieved so far; we have almost reached our 3-year target of 250 beneficiaries.

Year	2022 – 2023	2023 – 2024	Total
No of beneficiaries	65	160	225
Debt cleared through grant applications	£6270	£24,044	£30,314
Additional savings made through energy vouchers, household support payments and bill reassessments	£24,149	£39,197	£57,076
Total savings made	£30,419	£63,241	£87,390

The Affordable Warmth Forum continues to be delivered and we work closely with Lancashire County Council AWF to further develop Blackburn’s AWF. We also recruited 10 volunteers to help us promote and refer community members to us.

We are registered with National Energy Action and receive updates and relevant information along with ongoing staff training.

Case Study – Miss L, single parent of 2 children, White British

Miss L was referred to us via the Household Support Fund in July 2023 for assistance with energy arrears with Scottish Power (SP). She suffered a major trauma some time ago and struggles with a mental health condition but is now making great progress and is open to support.

She has a credit meter for her electricity with Scottish Power which she has arrears of £3,935.59, and a pre-payment meter (PPM) for her gas. We looked at financial help for the debt and completed a budget form via Step Change and applied to the Scottish Power Hardship Fund for assistance with her arrears. On 14th August 2023 the application to the Hardship Fund was successful, and they wanted to award Miss L £3000 which is the top level and the most they can award.

Miss L requested a PPM for her electric, so she did not fall further into debt, which was requested with SP. It was agreed once the PPM for the electric was fitted, the debt would be added to the meter then the hardship fund would apply the award to the meter to clear £3000 of the debt.

This process was started on 16th August, but SP stated that Miss L had a dual fuel account and insisted that she had a credit meter for her gas and not a PPM. It came to light that SP have been charging Miss L for gas even though she has been paying for this on her PPM.

SP were informed that Miss L has a PPM for her gas that she tops up regularly, photographic evidence was sent to them to back this up. It then took a further 6 telephone calls to SP to chase this matter further before they finally agreed to fit an electric PPM and a date was booked in for 21/09/203, they advised the gas matter was still being investigated.

Due to the length of time this was taking it was worrying Miss L would lose the £3000 award, so on 20/09/23 SP Hardship Fund were contacted to provide an update, on hearing the concerns they raised an official complaint to SP on our behalf.

The Smart PPM for electric was fitted on 21/09/203 but Miss L could not yet use this to top up as SP had not sent her a top up card or gave her advice on how to use it in PPM mode. A further 5 phone calls to SP to try and get this matter, and the gas issue resolved but each time was told it was still being investigated. On 15/11/2023 I advised SP I would be escalating this to the Energy Ombudsman as it had been 8 weeks, and the matter had still not been resolved. A case handler at The Energy Ombudsman is now working to resolve both matters. On 6/12/23 we got back in touch with the Hardship Fund to give them a full update. Due to the situation, they have awarded an uplift and have now kindly cleared the full arrears of £3,935.59.

This is just a snapshot of the problems we have with Energy Companies.  It is extremely frustrating for both clients and us as Energy Debt Advisors. Without our support and that of the Hardship Fund this whole situation would have had a severe impact on Miss L’s mental health and the debt would have continued to rise further.