Householders in North Lanarkshire received grants totalling nearly £1 million from the council’s fuel poverty hardship payment initiative in the first half of this year.
Payments of £150 each were distributed to 6089 successful applicants, with a further 700 still being processed when the scheme for 2021-2022 officially closed in June.
The authority has a further £2.1 million available to provide similar support this winter, with the scheme set to take effect from next month “in line with the next increase on the energy cap”.
Members of the council’s people and communities committee were told how applications were invited from householders on low incomes, who were aged 16 to 24 or who have children and met the fuel poverty definition of spending more than 10 per cent of their net income on energy costs.
A report noted that: “The tackling poverty action plan identified that around 31,000 people were experiencing fuel poverty in North Lanarkshire, with 8000 being families with children.
“Due to the levels of benefit entitlements and living wage level for the 18-24 age group, it was also highly likely that they will also experiencing fuel poverty; these two groups were therefore targeted as likely to be in fuel poverty and without access to other schemes such as winter fuel payment.”
The fuel poverty scheme received 8100 applications, with the report noting that this was below the target of 14,000 and with a further £1m – half of the allocated total funding – remaining available for distribution this year.
All applicants to the fund were offered benefit checks plus money and fuel advice, with more than 1200 going on to work with experts from the council’s financial inclusion team or local citizens’ advice bureaux.
The report added of this winter’s plans: “Over the past year there has been a significant change with acute rises in energy prices meaning that a much higher percentage of the population is at risk of fuel poverty, only partially mitigated by support already announced – proposals will be informed both by the evolving context and learning from the 2021-2022 scheme.”
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