Meet James

James was on a low income and struggling to make ends meet. He had energy arrears with a previous energy supplier as well as struggling to pay for his current energy usage. James was a recent widow, was living alone and not accessing all of the benefits he was entitled to. In addition to this he had water debts. James was experiencing problems with getting the right help from his local council and from his energy and water supplier. He was not using email or accessing support through online accounts or apps which was making things more difficult. With the support of the project we helped James apply for pension credit and housing benefit. This in turn helped ensure he automatically received £150 from The Warm Home Discount Scheme. Further, we ensured he was registered for the Priority Service Register with his electricity network operator, energy supplier and water supplier. We also helped James apply for the discounted ‘social tariff’ to receive a reduced water bill and apply for water debt relief. We also applied for energy debt relief from The British Gas Energy Trust to help James with his energy debt. This in turn helped to remove some of the anxiety caused by these debts and reduced the amount of contact he was getting about the unresolved debts. We then provided advice on how to save energy at home and provided tips on how to reduce households bills.