VCMA project - Holistic app energy debt & Welfare advice

A contract has been awarded to Citizens Advice Northumberland, a registered local charity which provides the people of Northumberland with free, confidential, independent and impartial information and advice on a wide range of subjects including welfare benefits, debt, financial capability, fuel poverty, housing, relationships and employment matters. Since 1st April this year we have helped more than 4,000 clients with more than 22,000 issues. Our help and support is delivered through face to face interview, telephone, digital and virtual conversations and includes endtoend casework as required.

We have been the foremost provider of energy advice in the County for more than 10 years and through our collaboration with Northumberland County Council we have identified priority wards in the county that suffer most from factors related to fuel poverty and therefore why these services are only able to be provided by Citizens Advice Nortumberland.

We have Focused on wards with:

• The highest proportion of households with income of below £20k/annum
• That have the highest levels of hospital admissions and excess winter deaths
• Where more than 1⁄3 of homes are estimated to have EPC below band C.

This approach has highlighted wards, for example Hirst, Newbiggin Central & East, Isabella, Croft, Ashington Central and Cowpen - all urban/coastal settlements and will target the delivery of advice directly into vulnerable households in these communities. We have an established track record of targeted support into these communities - our historic data shows that more than 30% of our general advice beneficiaries live in the 10 worst affected wards in the county.

County-wide statistics for Northumberland can mask the extreme deprivation experienced in the poorest urban and rural settlements, however notwithstanding this anomaly, the data in the June 2022 report, Research on Vulnerable Customer Groups for Northern Gas Networks supports our view that the County has a strong claim on additional resources to combat the effects of fuel poverty on its vulnerable households.