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More than five million households in the UK are not able to afford to heat and power their homes. They are in fuel poverty, needing to spend ten percent or more of their income on energy.

The average household now faces an annual energy bill of more than £1,200 - 30% higher than a year ago and more than double the average bill of five years ago.

Already more than 20,000 people die from the cold during the winter and many more become ill and go into debt. Fuel poverty has reached crisis levels.

How can you help?

NEA undertakes a range of activities to help fuel poor households. We welcome new sponsors, donors and supporters that wish to assist NEA. By making a donation, you can help us fund fuel poverty projects and our campaigning activities to ensure that all households, particularly those who are vulnerable, are able to live in homes which are warm, healthy and affordable to heat.

How your donation will be spent

All unrestricted donations received by NEA are held in a central 'pot' until the end of each financial year (31 March) and are then used in the following financial year to deliver a project that will directly help the fuel poor. NEA's staff who are experts in their various fields input into this process and suggest possible projects that could be funded with the donations received. These proposals are considered by the NEA Management Team before the final sign off is given for the donations to be used for a specific project.

Thank you to all of you who have donated to NEA during our 2009-10 financial year. All donations received during 2009-10 will be used to deliver a new project in the North East of England titled ‘A Warm Hand Shake' recognising that public donations have helped to keep homes warm.

A Warm Hand Shake
This project will offer advice and guidance to fuel poor and low-income families with children. Each family will receive bespoke energy advice in a holistic way to help deliver a solution to the multiple problems faced by the client. Services will include:

• Energy advice surgeries
• Personal home energy advice visits
• A telephone advice service

A hardship fund will also be allocated to assist those families most in need. The hardship fund will be used for individuals who are having difficulty paying their fuel bills or to help towards the cost of servicing appliances or for minor repairs. No cash payments will be made. Only families who are involved in the project will be eligible to apply for the hardship fund. Each application to the hardship fund will be assessed by NEA on a case-by-case basis, however a cap will be placed on applications to ensure the fund is distributed evenly.

This project has a direct link to the campaigning message of NEA. NEA has campaigned for a number of years for the extension of the Winter Fuel Payment to other vulnerable groups such as families with children, in addition to vulnerable older households. This view is also shared by many of NEA's supporters and in particular one of the donors to this fund who made the following comments when making their donation to NEA, "It just seems a bit silly that a 61 year old living alone but in a full time job and not close to the poverty line should get a Winter Fuel Payment. True, fuel costs have rocketed, so I'll keep half and you can have the rest". The ‘A Warm Hand Shake' project will build on this campaigning message by delivering support to fuel poor families with children who do not currently benefit from a Winter Fuel Payment.

The project will educate families with children in the North East on the solutions to fuel poverty and fuel debt with the overall intended outcome of removing them from fuel poverty and/or avoiding the future fuel poverty trap.

In the short term, the project will equip them with the knowledge to be able to reduce their fuel bills and maximise their income. In the longer-term, the project will ensure that they enjoy a good quality of life. It will encourage people to undertake behavioural change, there-by impacting on their long term energy use and fuel bills.

Monitoring and evaluation is a vital part of this project to enable NEA to report back to donors of the fund and to demonstrate exactly how their money has been spent. NEA will gage a families situation and their level of knowledge on energy efficiency both before and after the intervention. This will allow NEA to build a series of case studies to demonstrate the difference the project has made. These case studies will be added to the NEA website during Summer 2011 once the project has been completed and all reporting and evaluation has been finalised.

The case study below demonstrates how an older couple who were helped through a similar project based in NEA's Coventry Office were assisted.

Who can be helped? - A Case Study

Gordon and Rose B. live in Coventry. Mr B. has a heart condition and Mrs B. has suffered with blood clots in the past, which means they both feel the cold.

Their home is well cared for and outsiders would certainly not have presumed that they were suffering any hardship. However, inside the house the only form of heating was portable convector heaters and one electric fire. Their quarterly bill in the winter was over £300 and being on a low fixed income they were struggling to pay their bills and to keep warm.

The couple contacted the NEA Coventry office for advice about their heating and energy bills. A Project Officer arranged to visit the clients at home to assess their situation.

A welfare benefit check revealed that Mr B. is receiving Pension Credit and was therefore eligible for a Warm Front Grant, which would pay for a central heating system. An application to Coventry City Council for a grant for loft insulation and cavity wall insulation was also made. Other finance options were looked at and applications were made to Coventry General Charities for a Pension Gift of £200 per annum and also to the Severn Trent Trust Fund for help with their water bills.

Mr & Mrs B. are now both well and happy. The house is much warmer and they have commented on how lovely it is to wake up in the morning in a warm house compared to having no heat at all in the past. Their finances are much better and they are managing to pay all their bills, relieving them of a great deal of stress and anxiety. They could not believe that there was so much help available to them. Mr B. said that he feared for other pensioners who were living in very cold conditions because they are not aware that they too could get help.

Please click here to find out more about recent projects and campaigns by NEA.

If you would like to support NEA, there are several ways you can donate. If you are a UK taxpayer, you can add to your donation through Gift Aid.

For more information contact:

Donate online now

You can donate online securely at Charities Aid Foundation or PayPal. Clicking on the relevant logo will take you to the respective NEA donation page.