It is estimated that around 34% of households in Scotland are living in fuel poverty. Here at Changeworks, our energy advice teams regularly support those most in need of in-depth support, and over the 2024-25 period they helped 4,500 households in fuel poverty.
Nikki Cutler is one of our expert, accredited advisors who is on hand to support those households.
Here, on Fuel Poverty Awareness Day (Wednesday 26th November), she shares her experiences as an advisor, the difference her work is having and the impact fuel poverty has on every aspect of people’s lives…
My passion is helping people
When I joined Changeworks 20 years ago, fresh from completing an environmental postgraduate degree, I was keen to start a career where I could make a real difference.
Changeworks stood out as the perfect place to begin: an environmental charity focused on energy efficiency (and now decarbonisation) and alleviating fuel poverty.
Through early work on the Warm and Well project, helping people with poor health keep affordably warm at home, I saw first-hand how fuel poverty affects people’s wellbeing. I discovered something unexpected.
While I’ve always cared about the environment, I realised my passion lies with the people behind the work – the households we help every day who are often living in very difficult situations.
Unable to wash in warm water or cook
Fuel poverty is about far more than cold homes and high bills. It affects every aspect of daily life.
Worrying about your children’s asthma flaring and having another day off school, fearful your Gran might trip and fall because she has been sitting in a cold living room, or embarrassed to have friends round to visit because of the mould on your walls.
The financial impacts can also be crippling. Unable to wash in warm water or cook a meal because there’s no credit on your prepayment meter, borrowing or stealing to pay for fuel, or getting into fuel debt and being hounded by debt collectors to pay a bill you can’t afford. Living in or at risk of fuel poverty is tough, exhausting and detrimental to people’s physical and mental health.
I enjoy building strong relationships with clients, particularly those who are vulnerable or under served. We often meet our clients in times of crisis and high stress, and we may be the last option of help available to them. It’s important to take time to listen, understand and then together we make a plan and work at making the situation better.
For the past five years I’ve been the lead on Changeworks’ Energy Advice Service, delivered on behalf of the City of Edinburgh Council. The project provides energy advice and fuel billing support to council tenants across Edinburgh, some of whom are the most affected by rising fuel and living costs.
Saved £287,000 on energy bills since
Since 2020, I have supported over 2,500 clients through casework and outreach, saving them £287,000 on their fuel bills.
The last few years have brought significant challenges. During the Covid pandemic, we continued to support people remotely as financial pressures increased. Many households were already struggling, and the crisis only deepened their hardship.
Fuel price rises contributed to the cost of living crisis and demand for our service increased. We received more referrals for those who were in work but were finding costs unmanageable, and we saw a spike in tampering with prepayment meters.
Throughout these changes we continue to provide tailored energy saving and income maximisation advice, and continue to encourage positive behaviour change around the home. Even the smallest steps can make a difference and can empower our clients to do more as their confidence grows.
Our fuel billing cases have increased, where we investigate account errors and organise affordable debt repayments. For those who are eligible, we make funding applications to have arrears reduced or wiped.
Recently, some of our work has focused on the Radio Teleswitch Service switch-off and the closure of the Council’s Heat with Rent arrangement. These changes have led to more complex casework and negotiations with energy suppliers.
We are supporting more clients using heat networks and seeing a larger number of renewable heating systems. However, high fuel prices continue to cause concern and affect those in or close to fuel poverty the most.
Although decarbonisation and electrification are essential for our future, they come at a time when fuel poverty is increasing. Ensuring that people are not left behind in this transition is at the heart of our work and I’m committed to helping more vulnerable households navigate the changes ahead and improve their quality of life.
What some of our clients have said about the Nikki and our Affordable Warmth team
“Sending you this card as a personal thank you. I did not expect that amount in your application for me, very grateful to know that I can put on my central heating without worrying about it. That has put a better step in my legs and confidence in myself knowing that someone cares. Long may you help people like me in the future. It feels like a load off my shoulders.”
“I don’t like asking for help but really appreciate it. It makes a huge difference for me. Thanks for trying for me.”
“It’s amazing, the engineer came and finally fitted a SMART meter – yippee! It took me so long to try to get this sorted and then you managed it. Thank you so much for all your help.”
“Thank you so, so, much. You have helped me more than you’ll know. This has taken so much stress off me. Honestly, you have been a great help.”
Feedback from a support worker: “Thank you very much for sorting all this out. We had no idea there was a problem with the bill and I was just going to help her pay for it. You have had such patience to work out what was wrong with the meter readings. We hadn’t noticed. It’s good news that the final bill will actually be a lot smaller than we thought.”