Challenges this winter and beyond
What we know:
- Predictions for this winter/increased debt impact
- Citizens Advice cost of living reports
- By the end of September 2023, they have already helped over 200,000 people with energy issues, this is higher at this point than any other year on record and they have also helped more people with pre-payment meter top ups than in the whole of 2019, 20 & 21 combined
- They are also seeing record numbers of people accessing advice over energy debt and the level of overall household debt is continuing to increase
- Diabetes UK cost of living report
- Make sure people with diabetes have protection against gas disconnection
- NEA Cost of Living report
- Providing practical support needs to be a priority when costs are rising, such as heat the person, not the home
- Targeted support is key
- Households living on the lowest income and the least sufficient homes are being hardest hit
- Pre-payment meters – continue to face the biggest challenge getting support and have a higher risk of self-disconnection
- Need to have projects that link in with health to reduce hospital admissions and missed GP appointments and to speed up discharges
- Hard to Reach Mapping Framework - 10 priority needs
What we are already doing
Winter Resilience support
- GSOP - Additional payments continued for 4-24hrs as per last year
- Good data sharing between NGN and Northern Powergrid for PSR – therefore better knowledge/response to CIVS
- British Red Cross incident support in place
- Heat the person items - continue to distribute this winter as we did last year
New projects in the pipeline and what they will provide
- Tees Valley hospitals – targeted support for vulnerable groups accessing maternity service
- NGN awareness campaigns – addition of energy efficiency campaign as well as annual PSR/CO campaigns
- Support for Warm Spaces and Centres For Warmth plans – targeted support in most deprived areas
- NGN Community Support/Awareness vans – to increase NGN community presence and support during incidents
- Other projects to support specific vulnerability groups – asylum seekers/refugee communities, specific health conditions (e.g. diabetes, respiratory conditions), hard to heat households
Other areas
- Theft of Gas Revenue moved into Customer Support Fund project to increase support for measures that cannot be funded through VCMA
- Collaboration Network – widening of networking opportunities to ensure correct focus/best practice sharing
