Help to keep your home warm
Living in a cold home can damage your health. The Warm Homes programme is designed to help you stay warm and well through the cold months.
The Warm Homes programme can help you in two ways:
- help increase your income to pay for energy bills
- help make your home more energy efficient so you can stay warm in the winter.
How Warm Homes can help
Many local Age UKs across England and Wales are currently offering the Warm Homes programme. Here's how the programme can help you keep your home warm.
Benefit entitlement sessions
These one-to-one sessions usually take place in your home. Their purpose is to:
- increase your income by making sure you've applied for all the benefits you're entitled to
- provide support through the benefits application process.
In 2023/24, our benefit entitlement sessions identified over £59 million of unclaimed benefits. For each older person who received support through the Warm Homes programme, that was an average of £4,200 per year.
The visit was so helpful. I value my independence but realise that I can ask for help when needed and not struggle alone.
Home energy checks
In a home energy check, a trusted handyperson will visit your home to check how energy efficient it is. The handyperson can fit appropriate equipment to increase the energy efficiency. This includes things like:
- energy saving light bulbs
- draught excluders
- reflective radiator panels
The handyperson can also offer practical tips to help you keep your fuel bill down.
My husband is disabled and needs to be warmer all the time. The home energy check has helped a lot and with the extra knowledge we know how to keep warm without spending more money.
Providing advice
In both of these one-to-one sessions will also:
- provide advice on keeping warm and saving energy
- offer free Age UK information guides that may be useful
- refer you to local services you may find helpful.
How Warm Homes helped Pauline
Pauline lives alone and has been recently diagnosed with vascular dementia. Her daughter visits her daily to help her with day-to-day activities and tasks.
Pauline was referred to Age UK as she was finding it difficult to live off her Pension Credit and wanted to see if she was receiving all the benefits she was eligible to.
Pauline was also struggling with her heating bills and wasn't turning on her heating so she could save money and avoid going into debt.
Pauline had requested the Attendance Allowance claim form but her and her daughter felt it was too complicated to complete and so arranged to have a benefit entitlement session.
Age UK performed a benefit check and, on top of the Attendance Allowance, were able to identify Pauline was eligible for Council Tax Support and Severe Disability Premium for the Pension Credit she was already receiving.
Age UK helped her to fill in her Attendance Allowance claim form and helped her to claim for Council Tax Support.
As a result of Age UK's service, Pauline now has nearly £9000 extra income per year and can keep her heating on longer without feeling anxious.
More advice to help you stay warm and well this winter
