Cost of living support: your crisis, our action

We’re here to help you save money on your bills. Whether it’s through advice on how to retrofit your home, or top tips on how to apply energy saving measures.

You can find useful tips and advice on the following Council pages: 

• Get help with saving money on your energy bills – you can find tips on how to reduce your energy usage, and also find out about financial support for paying your energy bills. 

• Learn more about keeping your home warm this winter. Find information on keeping warm, getting support with winter fuel payments, and boosting your immunity against infectious diseases this winter. 

• Get help with retrofitting your home – read our advice on how you can retrofit your home and set up energy saving measures yourself, as well as where you can collect kits to apply these measures. 

There is also plenty of local support available to you: 

HEET 

HEET is a local not-for-profit organisation that works to help households save money on fuel bills and stay warm and healthy at home. 

If you receive any benefits or are aged 60 or over, HEET may be able to provide direct support with installation to help you make your home warmer and reduce your energy bills. You can refer yourself, or a professional can refer you on your behalf, using the HEET online referral form. 

You can get support and advice from HEET on how to carry out DIY retrofitting measures by visiting the HEET website.

Energy Cafés 

Morgan Sindall offers monthly Energy Cafés to Waltham Forest residents promoting energy awareness. These take place online on Wednesdays from 11am to 12:30pm.

Email Morgan Sindall (CSRbox@morgansindall.com) or Aston Group (R.Statter@astongroup.co.uk) to sign up for an energy awareness session. 

There are many useful tools and advice that can help you lower your energy costs. You can access this support if you are struggling to pay your bills: 

Energy Advice London 

you can find a range of practical resources, such as:

• a money savings calculator
• advice on saving energy and water
• reducing energy bills
• accessing financial support
• installing renewables
• a free advice phone line

Citizen’s Advice

Citizens Advice provide plenty of useful information, as well as free support around energy and the cost of living. 

Ofgem 

Ofgem provides helpful advice around how to agree a payment plan with your gas provider. You can also find schemes, grants and benefits, and get debt advice. 

The Energy Company Obligation Scheme 

You might be able to get help from your energy provider for energy saving improvements to your home if you claim certain benefits and live in private housing, or you live in social housing. You could get help with the cost of insulation work, or replacing your boiler. You can find further details of the providers that are taking part in the scheme on the providers section of the Ofgem website.

The Governments Energy Bills Support Scheme provides a discount on energy bills of £400 for most households in Great Britain. The scheme is being delivered through domestic Electricity suppliers in six monthly instalments from October 2022 and March 2023.

However, there are a number of households who pay for their energy in a different way so will not receive this support.

Households who do not have a direct relationship with a domestic energy supplier and have not benefited from the Government’s Energy Bills Support scheme, may be entitled to a one off non repayable payment of £400.

Online applications for the scheme will open on:

• Monday 27 February 2023 and will remain open until Wednesday 31 May 2023

Households who are eligible for the £400 EBSS Alternative Funding scheme must complete an application and submit their details on the GOV.UK website.

A helpline will be available by calling 0808 175 3287. Lines are open Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm from Monday 27th February 2023.

The dwelling support is being claimed for must be the main or sole residential address of the beneficiary.

The resident or applicant is responsible for paying for the energy used in the dwelling, either directly or as part of a service charge, rent or other arrangements.

The household is not already benefitting from EBSS or EBSS AF payments in whole or in part.

The household dwelling is not a business premises or other form of non-domestic premises, is used wholly or mainly for domestic purposes, with the exception of businesses whose main business activity is to provide long-term residential accommodation (landlords, etc).

Care Home residents who are NOT entirely Local Authority funded.

• Care home residents and others in care facilities or sheltered accommodation
• Park home residents, house boats, and caravans that can provide proof of address
• Social and private tenants who pay for energy through a landlord on a commercial supply
• Travellers on residential sites who can provide proof of address
• Homes on heat network or private wire
• Homes off grid
• Farmers in farmhouses for wholly domestic use

Premises that have a primary domestic supply contract or deemed contract are eligible for funding through the main EBSS scheme and are therefore excluded from receiving EBSS Alternative Funding.

This includes:

HMO’s

• where a landlord rather than a tenant holds the domestic electricity supply contract, and therefore the landlord is eligible for the EBSS payment (and should have passed the benefit through to their tenants)
• premises that have previously received one or more EBSS payments, including where a premises has multiple unrelated meter points which have been excluded from EBSS eligibility.

Second Homes

• Second or holiday homes are excluded from EBSS Alternative Funding. The dwelling must be the main or sole residential address of the applicant.

No energy charge

Households who are not responsible for paying for the energy used are not in scope of the scheme. Therefore, the following groups are excluded from the scheme:

• Students living in purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA)
• Seasonal workers living in associated accommodation
• Service occupiers – such as security, building caretakers, property guardians
• Fully publicly-funded care home residents

Empty properties

Property must be occupied for at least one month from the date of application and the occupation date must be between the period 1 October 2022 and 31 March 2023.

Care Homes

Residents who are fully Local Authority funded.

EBSS AFP AF payment £200

Who is eligible

The dwelling support being claimed must be the main or sole residential address of the beneficiary.

The resident or applicant is responsible for paying for the Alternative Fuel(s) used in the dwelling as the household’s main source of heating and, may, through these charges increasing, have the increased alternative fuel costs passed on to them between 1 September 2022 and 31 May 2023 either directly or as part of a service charge, rent or other arrangements.

The household has not or will not receive a payment through the main AFP scheme and has not received payment through the AFP Alternative Fund, in whole or in part.

The household dwelling is not a business premises or other form of non-domestic premises, and is used wholly or mainly for domestic purposes, with the exception of businesses whose main business activity is to provide long term residential accommodation (landlords, etc). Only households, and not the businesses themselves, may apply for the AFP Alternative Fund.

These criteria apply to the address that is receiving payment. It is possible that an individual may move from an AFP-eligible address to an AFP Alternative Fund-eligible address. In this case, as long as the applicant meets the other eligibility criteria when applying to the AFP Alternative Fund, they will be considered to be eligible to receive the payment.

Types of dwellings that may be eligible:

• Park home residents
• Housing Association, Social and Private tenants, and Leaseholders, supplied via a landlord with a commercial meter.
• Households in house boats on residential moorings.
• Households on a private electricity network, for example, those supplied by a heat network.
• Off-grid households.
• Traveller households on authorised sites.
• Households in non-permanent/supported accommodation.

Who is NOT eligible

Premises that have a primary domestic electricity supply contract (or deemed contract) are eligible for funding through the main AFP scheme and are therefore excluded from receiving AFP Alternative Fund if they have done so or will do so. This includes:

• Where a landlord rather than a tenant holds the domestic electricity supply contract, and therefore the landlord is eligible for the AFP payment (and should have passed the benefit through to their tenants).
• Premises who have previously received an AFP payment, including where a premises has multiple unrelated meter points which have been excluded from AFP eligibility.

The following groups are excluded from the scheme:

HMO’s

• residents where a landlord rather than tenants hold the domestic electricity supply contract, and therefore the landlord is eligible for the EBSS AFP payment, and should have passed the benefit through to their tenants.

Second Homes

• Second or Holiday homes are excluded from EBSS Alternative Funding. The dwelling must be the main or sole residential address of the applicant.

No energy charge

Households who are not responsible for paying for the energy used are not in the scope of the scheme. Therefore, the following groups are excluded from the scheme:

• Students living in purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA)
• Seasonal workers living in associated accommodation
• Service occupiers – such as security, building caretakers, property guardians

Empty properties

Property must be occupied for at least one month at the date of application and the occupation date must be between the period 1 September 2022 and 31 May 2023.

The following circumstances would also not be eligible:

• The individual submits an application that is not within the appropriate timescales. For example after 31 May 2023.
• The applicant does not have a valid bank account
• Duplicate application.
• Invented address or residents in address.
• Duplicate application but with different bank account details.

All applications must be made on a centralised form by searching for “Apply for energy bill support if you do not get it automatically” in the GOV.UK website search bar, or through an online search engine.

A national Call Centre will be in place for general queries, and for those who need to access assisted digital support. Call freephone number 0808 175 3287. Lines will be open Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm from Monday 6 March 2023.