Dear Members,
Yesterday was the official review of the Energy Best Deals Campaign at Ofgem
Offices in London, the report is now available for all to read (link below).
Citizens Advice very kindly invited some of the EBD delivery partners down
to attend and yours truly was pleased to be chosen. After the event we were
invited back to Citizens Advice HQ in Islington were we met with Chris Huhne
the energy secretary and PM David Cameron who popped in on their way to the
energy summit with the big six suppliers.– Piccie below shows the boys in
close up – not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing; anyway see what you
think! – You can just see Gillian Guy Chief CitA in the background.
<http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pennysmart-CIC/219206204768041>
http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/s320x320/315054_281041...
88_219206204768041_996697_27908670_n.jpg
Other more mundane news.................
We have set the date for the next N Wales forum meet – It will be Friday 9th
Dec (We are hoping some of our AM’s may be able to attend this time and they
are all welcome of course!) and will be held in the 1831 suite at Wrexham
Football Club – Please save the date we would like to see most of you there.
As we know you are all very busy peeps, so we are going to try a new format
– with an earlier start time of 9.30 and potential finish with lunch and
networking by 1pm. We have already secured guest speaker slots from Jayne
Wynne CAB Powys about their exciting new HMRC Centre of excellence project
and we are hoping Sim Ilyas of ‘Debtology’ will be able to come along and
talk to us about his new debt advice smartphone ‘app’ – to help people
access the help they need. (It’s all about technology these days!)
Ten TOP TIPS for Christmas
Don’t forget to order your leaflets before 24th October (thats next Monday)
the order line closes that date. We have to place at least 35 requests in
North Wales to reach our targets. Remember anyone can order them and they
are free (No min order size!) – so if any of your colleagues or delivery
partners work with those who struggle with money they are a great aide to
coping with Christmas. Or if you are sending out mailing to your service
users around the festive period they make a great cost effective insert).
There is also to be a press release in the papers about the campaign so get
your stocks ordered on this link this week. If you do order can you just let
me know so I can keep tabs on how many of us have requests pending. Also
apologies to our Welsh speaking contingent – but following further enquiries
the bi lingual format will not be available until further notice.
Full newsletter will be along soon together with booking forms, agenda etc,
and presentations etc from last meeting in October. Also Spring Meet date
set for Fri Mar 16th and is likely to be @ Craig Y Don Llandudno again – as
it was a popular venue for both East & West members.
See news from Beth Below...........................
Please forward to forum members
Energy Best Deal
We are pleased to announce that Citizens Advice has secured a further £100k
of funding to deliver Energy Best Deal over the coming winter. This brings
the total to £400k from four energy companies: EDF Energy; Scottish and
Southern; British Gas; E.ON.
The £400,000 pledged will be the most given in one campaign and will see
more consumers receive the advice, a timely result as the recession
continues and energy prices increase. A total of 750 sessions in England
and Wales will be delivered via the 14 regional financial capability forums.
A further 75 sessions will be delivered in Scotland. Delivery will be
between 1 December 2011 and 31 May 2012.
Some 170 agencies have applied to deliver Energy Best Deal this winter. (No
more applications are being accepted.) Citizens Advice and forum leads will
select delivery partners to ensure the best geographical and sector reach
and expect to notify successful candidates by 26 October.
The benefits of the 2011 Energy Best Deal campaign will be shared at the
public launch of the evaluation report in London on Monday 17 October.
The evaluation has been carried out by the Centre for Sustainable Energy and
published on 17 October 2011. Findings include:
· Almost a third of consumers attending said they found their winter
fuel bills to be a strain; 43% said that energy bills were a worry but they
were able to manage.
· Sixty-four percent of respondents said they had never switched to a
different tariff with the same supplier.
· 80% of consumers said they would probably or definitely do
something as a result of the session. 50% said they would contact their
current energy supplier, 40% said they would look at other energy suppliers’
prices, and 38% said they would tell friends and family what they had
learnt.
· Following the session, 93% of frontline advice workers said they
felt more confident advising on at least one of the topics covered in the
presentation, and 29% felt more confident about all topics.
· Follow up interviews with eighty consumers, two months after the
session found that 29% had taken action to seek a better deal since the
session and 38% had taken some kind of action to reduce their home energy
use since the session. 61% had passed on information from the session to
friends and family, telling an average of 2.8 people each.
· Follow up interviews with twenty frontline workers, two months
after the session found that 65% had given advice on the topics covered in
the presentation since the session. 45% had given advice on topics they had
not previously advised on.
· Across all 20 frontline workers interviewed, information from
Energy Best Deal had, within the average two months since the session, been
passed on to an average of 8.7 clients per frontline advice worker since the
session.
The full report will be available from 17 October at
<http://www.financialskillsforlife.org.uk/index/partnerships/financial...
forlife/fsfl_projects/fsfl_projects_energybestdeal.htm>
http://www.financialskillsforlife.org.uk/index/partnerships/financial...
orlife/fsfl_projects/fsfl_projects_energybestdeal.htm
For more information see the above web site or contact
beth.b...@citizensadvice.org.uk
Awards for excellence in helping social housing tenants to improve their
money management
You are invited to enter the
<http://lemosandcrane.co.uk/home/index.php?id=213557&emailid=2:128:0>
MoneyActionNet Awards for projects that have proved successful in helping
social housing tenants to improve their money management.
The MoneyActionNet Awards are presented by Lemos&Crane who are sponsoring a
total prize of £1,500 (to be shared between a winner and runners-up).
Entries are invited from housing associations, local authority landlords,
ALMOs, supported housing providers and community or voluntary-based
organisations working with social housing tenants.
What the Awards are for
* Developing a better understanding of tenants’ financial situation
and aspirations
* Ensuring tenants have a bank account and access to the banking
system
* Encouraging tenants to save and plan for the future
* Developing tenants’ capacity to earn money
* Helping tenants towards home ownership or shared ownership
* Reducing tenants’ expenditure on furniture and fuel
* Maximising tenants’ income, OR
* Helping tenants to avoid debt
Timetable
* Deadline for entries – 5pm Friday Dec 2, 2011
* Shortlist announced – Monday, Dec 19, 2011
* Winners announced – Monday Jan 16, 2012.
Go to http://lemosandcrane.co.uk/home/index.php?id=213557
<http://lemosandcrane.co.uk/home/index.php?id=213557&emailid=2:128:1>
&emailid=2:128:1 for information and to download the entry form.
Please forward this information to colleagues who would be interested.
P please consider the environment - do you really need to print this email?
The Citizens Advice service helps people resolve their legal, money and
other problems by providing information and advice, and by influencing
policymakers.
* For online advice and bureau opening hours www.adviceguide.org.uk
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www.citizensadvice.org.uk
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