Energy Grants & Assistance
Free, practical consumer advice and information on energy-related matters for the citizens of Scotland
Energy Grants, Payments, and Other Support
Winter Heating Payment is a £58.75 payment to help people on low-income benefits who might have extra heating needs. Social Security Scotland pays this to people living in Scotland.
The payment is made once a year and is paid automatically to anyone who is eligible. The payment does not affect other benefits.
It will be paid between December 2024 and February 2025.
Entitlement
Winter Heating Payment is not based on temperature levels and will be paid whatever the weather to people already receiving the below benefits during the qualifying week. The next qualifying week is 4 November to 10 November 2024.
Eligibility
To get Winter Heating Payment a customer must get one of the following benefits during the qualifying week:
- Universal Credit
- Pension Credit
- Income Support
- Income based Jobseeker’s Allowance
- Income Related Employment Support Allowance
- Support for Mortgage Interest
Additional qualifying criteria in relation to premiums paid because the customer is disabled or has a young or disabled child also need to be met.
Receiving Winter Heating Payment
Most eligible customers will receive this payment automatically. They’ll receive a letter or an email from Social Security Scotland telling them it’s coming. The payment will appear as ‘WHP’ on their bank statement.
Child Winter Heating Payment is a payment to help families with disabled children and young people with fuel costs. Child Winter Heating Payment was first paid in 2020. It’s paid once a year. The payment for winter 2024-2025 is £251.50.
Eligibility
Children and young people in Scotland can get the assistance if they’re under 19 years old and get one of the following “qualifying benefits”:
- the highest rate of the care component of Child Disability Payment
- the highest rate of the care component of Disability Living Allowance for children
- the enhanced daily living component of Personal Independence Payment
- the enhanced rate of the daily living component of Adult Disability Payment
They must be getting this on at least one day in the third full week of September.
In 2024 this will be/was Monday 16 September to Sunday 22 September.
Home Energy Scotland offer free, impartial advice to help you stay warm at home, save energy and reduce your carbon footprint. Funded by the Scottish Government, Home Energy Scotland can also help you access financial support to make your home more efficient and cheaper to heat.
You can find out more at www.homeenergyscotland.org or call free on 0808 808 2282
ECO 4
The ECO scheme is aimed at people who live in housing that has a low energy efficiency rating and focuses on those who are vulnerable or have a low income. The current incarnation of the ECO scheme (ECO4) applies to measures completed between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2026.
Under the ECO4 scheme customers may qualify for electric storage heaters, loft insulation, cavity wall insulation, solid wall insulation, boiler replacement or repair, heat pumps, solar panels, and other energy efficiency measures.
You might be able to get help for energy-saving improvements to your home if you either:
- claim certain benefits and live in private housing (for example you own your home or rent from a private landlord)
- live in social housing
You may get help with the cost of:
- insulation work, for example to your loft or cavity walls
- replacing or repairing your boiler – or other upgrades to your heating
If you claim benefits and live in private housing
You might be eligible for help if you live in private housing and get one of the following benefits:
- Child Tax Credit
- Working Tax Credit
- Universal Credit
- Pension Guarantee Credit
- Pension Savings Credit
- Income Support
- income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA)
- income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
- Child Benefit
- Housing Benefit
If you own your house, it must have an energy efficiency rating of D, E, F or G to be eligible.
If you rent from a private landlord, the house must have an energy efficiency rating of E, F or G to be eligible. You must have the owner’s permission to do the work.
If you’re a social housing tenant
If you live in social housing that has an energy efficiency rating of E, F or G you might be eligible for help with insulation or installing a heating system for the first time.
Use the energy performance certificate register to find your property’s energy efficiency rating, or ask your landlord or housing association.
If you are interested in ECO, you can contact an energy supplier who is obligated under the scheme, this doesn’t need to be your own supplier. Suppliers who are obligated are:
British Gas – ECO scheme – British Gas
E (Gas & Electricity) Ltd – https://www.e.org/ – james.thornicroft@e.org
E.ON UK Solutions – www.eonenergy.com – ECOhome@eonenergy.com
Ecotricity – www.ecotricity.co.uk – compliance@ecotricity.co.uk
EDF – www.edfenergy.com – ECO@edfenergy.com
Octopus Energy – www.octopus.energy – eco@octoenergy.com
Outfox the Market – www.outfoxthemarket.co.uk – hello@outfoxthemarket.co.uk
OVO (Including SSE Energy Services) – https://www.ovoenergy.com/energy-efficiency-schemes – ECO@ovoenergy.com
Scottish Power – www.scottishpower.co.uk – ecoenquiries@scottishpower.com
So Energy (Including ESB Energy) – www.so.energy – eco@so.energy
The Utility Warehouse – https://uw.co.uk/
Utilita Energy Ltd – www.utilita.co.uk – ECO@Utilita.co.uk.
The Great British Insulation Scheme
The Great British Insulation Scheme is designed to be complementary to ECO4. They’re different schemes, but this is sometimes confused as the scheme was previously known as ECO+
It’s an obligation for larger energy suppliers across Great Britain to provide their customers with grants for insulation to reduce home heating costs.
The scheme is aimed at low income and vulnerable households, including those in houses with poor energy efficiency, with an energy performance certificate (EPC) rating of D or below and those in low council tax bands, in Scotland this will be anyone in bands A-E.
The Great British Insulation Scheme will offer grant support for the install of insulation including:
- loft insulation
- pitched roof insulation.
- flat roof insulation
- under floor insulation
- solid floor insulation
- park home insulation
- room-in-roof insulation
- secondary heating controls
- cavity wall insulation
- solid wall insulation (both external and internal)
Applications for the scheme have yet to open, but will be available through your energy supplier.
ECO4 Flex
ECO4 Flex, sometimes also known as Local Authority or LA Flex, was designed to assist those households who are on a low income but do not claim a qualifying benefit.
Households with poor EPC ratings, who are in fuel poverty or those who are vulnerable to the effects of living in a cold home may be eligible. The scheme can help towards the cost of storage heaters, insulation, and boiler replacement.
Under the ECO4 Flex scheme, local authorities and devolved administrations are able to identify and refer households for support. In addition, your energy supplier could submit to your local authority on your behalf for support.
Your GP could also refer you to the council for support if they have concerns about health conditions caused by or worsened by living in a cold home.
Applying for ECO4, Great British Insulation Scheme or ECO Flex
If you are interested in or think you might be eligible for any of the schemes you can contact Home Energy Scotland on 0808 808 2282 or visit their website at www.homeenergyscotland.org
Support from your Energy Supplier
Suppliers now have stricter regulations about offering their customers affordable payment plans to cover debt. Suppliers must consider a customer’s ability to pay and should:
- take individual circumstances into account.
- make full use of available information, including budget sheets.
- make it easy for customers to talk to them about concerns they have around ability to pay.
- contact customers in a timely manner to discuss whether a different repayment plan is appropriate if they miss a payment on an agreed repayment.
When a supplier knows that their customer is having difficulty repaying their energy bills, for example because they miss or make a late payment, they must either:
- accept payments by regular instalments based on an agreed plan;
- use Fuel Direct if customers are on particular benefits.
- agree repayment through a prepayment meter if appropriate for the customer.
Suppliers must also offer to provide energy efficiency information to help reduce energy charges.
Friendly credit refers to a mechanism which stops prepayment meters from self-disconnecting when credit runs out during the evening or weekend. The reason for friendly credit is to ensure customers have access to their energy at times where they may not be able to access a shop and top up.
In order for friendly credit to kick in, the customer must go off supply during the friendly credit hours, not before they start. This means that they would either have some credit remaining, or some emergency credit remaining at the start of emergency credit hours.
Friendly credit needs to be repaid and will be deducted from the next top up
Emergency Credit is available on prepayment meters when credit runs out. Emergency credit does not automatically come on, so customers must select to use it.
Emergency credit will be paid back the next time the customer tops up.
Being on emergency credit still counts as being ‘on credit’ for the purposes of friendly credit.
There is no set rule for how much emergency credit will be offered but its generally between £10 and £30.
Many suppliers have hardship funds that can support customers who are struggling with their energy costs.
These funds are for customers on a low income, or who claim certain benefits. Depending on the supplier, customers may be able to apply directly, or they may need to have a more detailed discussion around affordability with their supplier who will look at various options to support them.
Feed-in Tariffs and The Green Deal
The Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) makes sure that small-scale low-carbon generators receive payment for any electricity they export to the grid.
It requires licensed electricity suppliers to offer export tariffs to anaerobic digestion (AD), hydro, onshore wind, and solar photovoltaic (PV) generators with a total installed capacity up to 5MW, and micro-combined heat and power (micro-CHP) up to 50kW.
The obligation came into force on 1 January 2020. It follows on from the Feed-in Tariff (FIT) scheme that closed on 31 March 2019, but it works very differently to FITs.
In the SEG scheme there is:
- A Generator (The customer who has a system that produces energy)
- SEG Licensee (Energy supplier offering SEG tariff such as EDF, SP,BG, Utilita etc)
The SEG scheme can be used for:
- Solar photovoltaics (PV)
- Solar powered panel system
- Wind turbine
- Hydro
- Water powered system.
- Anaerobic Digestion (AD)
- Production of biogas through waste
- Micro-Combined Heat and Power (Produces electricity while heating water)
The Green Deal was a UK government scheme where money could be borrowed to pay for energy-saving home improvements. The type of energy-saving measure varied from double glazing, to insulation, to draught-proofing, to renewable energy generation installations like heat pumps and solar panels. Applications to the scheme ended in 2015 but you may still be paying back the loan. If you are unsure if you were part of the Green Deal, there are three ways to check:
- Do you have a signed credit agreement with the Green Deal provider?
- Do you have an annual statement of what has been paid and what is still owed?
- Are Green Deal payments part of your bill? If in doubt, you should contact the supplier to check.
If you believe that your Green Deal provider sold the scheme to you based on false information, for instance by saying it was free or exaggerating the energy saving benefits, then you may have been mis-sold Green Deal.
If you are having an issue with Green Deal payments or think that you were miss sold the Green Deal, the team at energyadvice.scot can help.
Call 0808 196 8660 (Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm) or speak to the team online.
What is the Feed-In Tariffs Scheme?
The Feed-In Tariffs (FIT) scheme was designed to encourage people to install renewable and low carbon energy generations such as solar panels or wind turbines.
It launched on the 1st of April 2010, and it required participating electricity suppliers to make payments on both generation and export from eligible installations.
How does the scheme Work?
FIT payments are made quarterly (at least) for the electricity your installation has generated and exported. Payments are made based on the meter reading you submit to your energy supplier (Ofcom refers to them as your FIT licensee).
FIT payments are made by your energy supplier from the date you become eligible for the scheme.
The FIT scheme closed to new application on the 1st April 2019.
More information about FIT can be found on the OFGEM website.
https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/environmental-and-social-schemes/feed-tariffs-fit
The GOV.UK website also has some useful guidance on feed in tariffs including some tools available for the public to use such as the solar energy calculator and the cashback calculator – see Feed-in tariffs: get money for generating your own electricity – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
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