A Belfast man has said the organisation of the Fuel Poverty Hardship Fund in the Belfast City Council area is "a shambles".
Warren Jenkins went to two centres on Thursday to try and sign up to receive a £100 voucher.
Under the scheme, households with an income of less than £60,000 annually or that met other criteria were eligible, with a fund of £1million.
Read more: Cost of living: Households to receive up to £100 towards energy bills in Belfast City Council fund
Nine partner organisations across the city are administering the scheme on behalf of the council.
The scheme operates on a first-come, first-served basis for those eligible meeting at least one of the following conditions:
Only households that can demonstrate they meet at least one of the criteria will be eligible for support (until the available funding has been exhausted):
- a member of your household is entitled to free school meals
- a member of your household has recently become unemployed
- a member of your household receives means tested benefits
- your household is in debt with an energy provider
- your gross annual household income is less than £60,000
Warren told Belfast Live he felt that the scheme could have been better administered to meet the needs of the most vulnerable.
"It's not as much for myself, yes it would have been nice to get one and helpful, but what disappointed me more was that there were pensioners being turned away," he said.
"I could tell that they really needed the money and the whole thing has not been organised well at all.
"I can only speak for North Belfast, so I don't know what it's like for the rest of Belfast.
"By the time I got there at 12.45pm on Thursday, they were all gone.
"People had been queueing at 8am and by the time people came to distributing the vouchers at 10am, they were gone fairly quickly as they'd only brought 150."
Warren said he had only heard about the centres because he followed a few councillors on Facebook and he thought it could have been better communicated to allow those most in need the best chance at help.
"I noticed yesterday when I was there, there were two pensioners and I thought to myself if I'm the last person to get one, I'll give it to them instead," he said.
"They needed it more, I'm 40 years of age, I can keep myself warm if I need to.
"It would be a nice help for me, but I'd have given it to them if was one of the last few ones.
"Luckily I had some money and there was a wee old man behind me, who I asked if he needed money.
"He said it was what he'd been hoping for so I was able to give him what I had and said I hoped it would tide him over to tomorrow until he could get down again to see if he could get the voucher."
A Belfast City Council spokesperson said: “The allocation and distribution of vouchers from the fuel poverty hardship fund is being looked after by partner organisations in each part of the city, as agreed by our councillors.
"As expected, the fund has received a lot of interest, and all the vouchers for a number of areas have now been allocated.
"Our website is being updated to reflect areas that are closed for applications.
"Details of other support and advice services to help people with the rising cost of living is on our website at: www.belfastcity.gov.uk/costofliving."
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