Welsh government pledges £4m for fuel voucher scheme

The Welsh government has pledged almost £4 million to the Fuel Bank Foundation charity to expand its operation and provide vouchers for pre-payment meter (PPM) energy customers.

Current estimates suggest up to 45% of all households in Wales could be in fuel poverty following April’s record price cap increase. This is set to become worse when the next expected increase occurs in October.

In a statement on Friday, (10 June) minister for social justice Jane Hutt said the funds will also help launch a new crisis service for households which are off the gas grid and unable to buy fuel.

She said: “In order to be eligible, households will be referred for support by one of a network of referral partners.

“They must be experiencing intense financial crisis and at immediate risk of self-disconnection, or indeed have already self-disconnected, or making choices which may cause significant detriment to ensure that energy is funded.”

Fuel Bank Foundation will manage the scheme and the money will be used to support the setting up of a fuel bank in each local authority area in Wales.

To achieve this, Fuel Bank’s network will be expanded by “approximately 40-50 new partners” to enable the charity to distribute approximately 49,000 vouchers (either £30 in summer months or £49 in winter) to pre-payment households across Wales that are at risk of self-disconnection.

Hutt said the expanded scheme will provide approximately 117,000 individuals with support, depending on the size of households. A maximum of three vouchers in a six month period will be granted to each household. However, the referral partners will have “some discretion”.

Elsewhere the money will also fund the expansion of the partner network to support “wrap-around energy and savings advice” which Hutt said will “avoid dependency and repeat requests for help including onward referral as appropriate”.