Support for people in need

Comprehensive, holistic support

Our Advisors provide tailored, in-depth support to householders to save energy, access financial support, resolve energy debt and billing issues and be affordably warm in their homes, and deliv­er prevention work to help alleviate fuel poverty.

Our Advisors are accredited by Scottish National Standards for Information and Advice, City and Guilds and receive specialist training. To ensure our support is holistic, we work in partnership with our referral network.

Invaluable financial savings achieved

Due to spiralling energy costs, providing advice to people on how to save on their energy bills has never been more important.

We have seen an increase in people in crisis with their energy costs, with more people than ever in energy debt to their supplier. In response to the growing level of need we have increased our team from 16 staff to 22 staff.

Our Advisors work hard to do all they can to support people. This has meant that this year, our Affordable Warmth Services team achieved over £1 million savings for people, the most we’ve ever realised. This was achieved through supporting in a variety of ways, including accessing discounts, vouchers and applying for grants, e.g. the Home Heating Support Fund.

In 2022-23, we have achieved for people:

• £1,035,000 total financial savings
• Over £439,000 achieved in advice savings*
• Over 5,800 householders were supported with energy advice and support, an increase of 47% compared to 2021-22
• Over £404,000 of savings via grants that we secured for householders

*calculated by how much people can save as a result of applying the advice they receive from our advisors.

Reaching those who are vulnerable

Our mission is to ensure a just transition to net zero, and as such, supporting vulnerable* people is a critical part of what we do.

In 2022-23:

• 46% increase in clients who stated they had dependents in the home
• 35% more people declared they were in receipt of benefits
• 70% of householders we provided advice to live in social housing

We held 56% more outreach events in 2022-23 than in 2021-22 in order to better reach marginalised and excluded groups, as well as people who for the first time were at risk of, or in fuel poverty.

Thanks to our advice and support, in 2022-23:

• 67% of service users felt warm in their home after our advice and support (compared to 19% before)
• 29% of service users stated that after receiving our support, they saw a reduction in the negative impact being cold in their home was having on their health
• 76% of service users said they learned how to deal with energy issues from our advisors

*clients are defined as ‘vulnerable’ because of having dependents in the home, being in receipt of benefits, old age, a mental health condition, being disabled, having a severe or long-term illness, having a visual or hearing impairment, or for other reasons such as addiction.

Customer satisfaction

In 2022-23:

• 93% of clients were satisfied or very satisfied with the support received
• 91% rated the overall accessibility of the service as good or very good
• 92% stated the support was delivered within an appropriate timescale
• 99% stated the advisor explained the information to them in a way that was clear and easy to understand

Client feedback:

“[The advisor] completely changed my mindset, I had to learn about the boiler, I have learning difficulties and that’s a huge disability when things aren’t in your reach, I had to learn a whole new system and I’m using half of what I used previously.”

“[The advisor] went out of his way. It was absolutely grand. Stuff I didn’t understand he explained to me nice and simple.”

Click here to download a PDF version of our Affordable Warmth Services report for 2022/23.