Scottish Government

2 Outputs and outcomes

95% of callers to the EAP 0800 telephone number receive energy saving advice, Stage 1. Their potential eligibility for Stages 2, 3, and 4 is screened in a telephone interview. Referrals to delivery partners are made by transferring encrypted data. The delivery partners for both EAP and HIS send the results of referrals to EST, who compile reports on the programme.

2.1 Enquiries and people helped

Between 1 April 2009 and 31 March 2010:

• 69,346 households enquired about the Energy Assistance Package and 115,080 people in 67,144 households took up offers of help;
• Under HIS, 95,368 properties were visited and 45,118 home energy check forms completed.

2.2 EAP Stage 1 advice to potentially fuel poor people

Between 1 April 2009 and 31 March 2010:

• 113,304 people in 66,024 households were given energy savings advice (95% of callers) with advice given 81,933 times (some households or individuals having asked for advice more than once).

2.3 Referrals to EAP Stages 2, 3, and 4

Stage 2 referrals for income maximisation and energy tariff checks between 1 April 2009 to 31 March 2010:

• 11,095 people were referred for income maximisation checks (16% of callers)
• 20,055 households were referred to energy providers for energy tariff checks (29% of callers)

Stage 3 referrals to CERT providers for cavity wall and/or loft insulation between 1 April 2009 and 31 March 2010:

• 9,263 households were referred for EAP Stage 3 measures (13% of callers)
• 4,400 households were referred for other CERT schemes (6% of callers)
• ESSacs also made referrals to CERT schemes for 11,149 measures, for 8,668 non- EAP households

Stage 4 referrals for grant-funded heating, insulation, draught proofing between 1 April 2009 to 31 March 2010:

• 15,061 households were referred for EAP Stage 4 (22% of callers)

2.4 Home Insulation Scheme referrals

Referrals for HIS measures:

• 6,782 households were referred for cavity wall insulation
• 1,910 households were referred for full loft insulation
• 12,788 households were referred for loft top-up insulation

Referrals for EAP measures under HIS:

• 2,008 households were referred for EAP benefit checks
• 5,416 households were referred for EAP social tariff
• 525 households were referred for EAP stage 3 cavity wall insulation
• 460 households were referred for EAP stage 3 full loft insulation referrals
• 2,450 households were referred for EAP stage 4 support

2.5 EAP referrals by types of households

The EAP offers help to a range of households. Both pensioner households and families ¹ can benefit at all stages and other types of households can be referred to Stages 2 and 3.

Table 1: Referrals to Energy Assistance Package Stages 2, 3, 4

2.6 Referrals and outcomes, EAP Stage 2

The reporting of outcomes from Stage 2 was incomplete, at the time of writing, due to the reporting cycles of delivery partners. We will update the information in the tables as new information becomes available. We estimate that some families could be benefitting by as much as £200 a month.

Income maximisation

Pensioners are offered income maximisation checks by the Pensions Service of the Department for Work and Pensions. The Pension Service checks the records they hold on every client referred. If either an entitlement check has been conducted within the last 6 months, or the records indicate that no further entitlements are likely, then no further action is taken. For the remainder of the clients, contact is made, a check is undertaken (often, but not always, face to face) and assistance given to apply for any benefits or tax credits to which the client is entitled.

For non-pensioner households, Citizens Advice Direct ( CAD) call the customer and gather additional information before advising the customer on whether it is likely that they will be able to access specific benefits or tax credits. It is then up to the customer to complete the forms necessary to apply for these benefits. CAD do not complete the forms on behalf of the customer or assist the customer in completing the forms. However CAD attempt to call the customer back around two weeks from their first contact with CAD and check if they've completed the forms. If the customer hasn't completed the forms, CAD suggests where they can go for help with filling them in.

Table 2: Referrals and status, EAP Stage 2 - Income maximisation

Reporting of increase in income is also incomplete and tends to under-estimate the benefits of income maximisation referrals. Reporting by the Pensions Service is only available up to March, so that increase in income for referrals outstanding at 31 March is not included. There is no requirement for people referred to the CAD to report their actual increase in income, so CAD can only report the potential financial gain that they identify. Both the Pensions Service and CAD only report national totals to EST.

Table 3: Outcomes, EAP Stage 2 - Income maximisation

* Actual increase in annual income from checks by Pension Service, per case
** Potential increase in annual income from checks by Citizens Advice Direct, per person.

Energy tariffs

20,055 households were referred to their energy providers for energy tariff checks. The energy providers offer 'social' tariffs, each setting their own eligibility criteria. Also, where households do not qualify for social tariffs, the energy provider offers them checks of whether they are eligible for rebates or whether they are using the cheapest payment method.

Initially, callers were 'signposted' to their energy provider, by being given a number to call. Scottish Government was concerned that this resulted in relatively few contacts and, from 12 October 2009, a system of direct referrals was introduced, with the providers supplied with customer numbers to call. Reporting was also improved at that time, to include rebates and changes in payment methods.

Table 4: Referrals and status, EAP Stage 2 - Energy tariffs

* incomplete data - number of contacts only recorded from June 2009
** incomplete data - only recorded from October 2009

In Table 5, the estimated reductions in annual fuel bills as a result of social tariffs combines:

• savings predicted by the fuel supplier, based on actual customers helped (from 12th October 2009); and
• average £150/year saving on the average household annual dual fuel bill of £1000 (before 12th October 2009), as advised by the Energy Retail Association.

Table 5: Outcomes, EAP Stage 2 - Energy tariffs

2.7 Referrals and outcomes, EAP Stage 3

9,263 households were referred to their energy suppliers to check whether they were eligible for insulation measures under their supplier obligations, the Carbon Emissions Reductions Target ( CERT). Of these, a third have had installations of insulation completed.

Initially, Stages 3 and 4 were treated sequentially, but from October, all work for households eligible for both Stages 3 and 4 was undertaken under Stage 4.

At the time of writing we are still awaiting information from CERT providers on jobs carried out for referrals from the 2009/10 programme. EST continues to seek updates for the fifth of jobs that were reported as still being in progress at the end of August 2010. The CERT providers do not provide an analysis of the eligibility of households receiving Stage 3 measures.

EST does not collect information on outcomes from either the 4,400 CERT referrals made for EAP callers who were not eligible for Stage 3, or from the 8,668 non- EAP referrals by ESSacs.

Table 6: Referrals and status, EAP Stage 3

* includes 32 installations based on unofficial returns for one contractor.

Reductions in annual fuel bills from Stage 3 measures are based on the CO ₂ savings estimated by the service providers. Assumptions then used are lifetime of measure (40 years) and fuel bill saving per tonne of CO ₂ (£187), sourced from the Energy Saving Trust, based on information from the Office of the Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem), the Building Research Establishment ( BRE) and uSwitch energy prices from June 2010.

Table 7: Outcomes, EAP Stage 3

* does not include the 32 installations based on unofficial returns

2.8 Social sector, EAP Stage 3

In addition to grant-funding for private owned or rented homes, Scottish Government invited bids from local authorities and housing associations for grants for energy efficiency measures to complement CERT insulation work. The grants allocated are shown in the following table.

Table 8: EAP grant funding to social sector for energy efficiency measures

2.9 Referrals and outcomes, EAP Stage 4

Of the households who applied before 1 April 2010, 11,502 had received heating system measures and a further 1,845 had received insulation-only measures by 31 August 2010.

63% of the heating measures resulted from referrals to Stage 4 of the Energy Assistance Package, with the remainder arising from our commitment to applicants under the programmes it replaced.

Up to a further 1340 heating and 156 insulation-only measures were planned for EAP applicants, and for 10 remaining CHP applicants.

58% of households receiving heating measures also received thermal insulation measures.

Since 31 August, 18 of the households who had chosen to receive only insulation measures have decided to have heating system measures as well.

Table 9: EAP installations for applications made before 1 April 2010

* of these, 18 later decided also to have heating system measures.

The reconciliation of the 09-10 budget is ongoing, but it is clear that the budget will be fully spent and will have funded improvements to 13,000 homes, including 11,502 heating system measures.

Table 10 shows the distribution, by local authority, of referrals, jobs installed, and jobs in progress as at the end of August 2010, for the 15,061 households referred between April 2009 and March 2010 to Stage 4 of the Energy Assistance Package.

It also shows the average delivery time, in working days, from referral to installation where measures had been installed by the end of August. Average delivery times for EAP Stage 4 applications, from referral to installation are about half those under the former Central Heating Programme, at 68 working days.

Table 10: Status of EAP Stage 4 referrals in 2009-10, by local authority

Table 11 shows the distribution of installations for other households who had applied to the earlier programmes.

Table 11: EAP: Central Heating Programme and Warm Deal jobs, by local authority

Reductions in annual fuel bills and CO ₂ savings from Stage 4 measures are given in Table 12.

Table 12: Outcomes, EAP Stage 4

* Based on SAP modelling of averages and total values across all benefitting EAP applicants. Due to restrictions with SAP methodology it is not possible to assess improvements to mobile homes permanently fixed to a site.

The EAP Stage 4 options currently include gas (mains gas, LPG), electric (storage, wet, air source heat pumps), oil, and solid fuel (logs, coal, peat) heating systems, and connections to existing district heating networks. Given that the majority of installations are in areas connected to the mains gas grid, the most common heating systems are based on very efficient condensing gas boilers.

Table 13: Fuel type for EAP heating system measures installed, by Local authority

As well as heating, the EAP Stage 4 options cover a range of energy efficiency measures, including insulation and draught-proofing.

Customers tend to prioritise heating system measures and many resist having insulation measures installed, due to fear of disruption. Wherever possible, Scottish Gas requires that loft and cavity wall insulation and draught proofing are undertaken before heating measures are installed.

There has been little uptake of the more expensive measures (internal or external wall insulation and under-floor insulation). This is mainly due to customer concerns about upheaval and disruption. Also, if both heating and internal or external wall insulation are needed, a customer contribution will be required because the cost exceeds the grant limit.

There was no need for insulation of hot water cylinders. If any cylinder was not insulated as recommended in the Building Standards Domestic Technical Handbook, it would either be replaced or provided with an insulated jacket. Most installations on the package are combination boilers which do not require a cylinder.

Few customers have expressed an interest in having thermal curtain linings.

Improvements to mobile homes permanently fixed to a site were slow initially, with the need to enhance surveying skills and installation techniques to deal with various issues with the construction and servicing of such homes. In recent months, installations have accelerated and the programme is leading the UK in improving residential mobile homes for fuel poor households, including external wall insulation.

Table 14: EAP Stage 4 energy efficiency measures installed (no. measures), by Local authority

Less than a quarter of referrals were rejected, with rejections including households who could not be contacted after three attempts by the Managing Agent. Referrals are sent to Scottish Gas at the end of every day, and a welcome call is made the next day, where the qualifying criteria are confirmed and arrangements are made for an eligibility survey. If Scottish Gas cannot contact the customer, they make further calls on two different days within the next seven days, at different times of day.

Of those rejected at the eligibility survey, the majority did not have an energy inefficient home. The remainder could not demonstrate that the household was eligible.

14% of households referred withdrew their applications, either before or after the eligibility survey.

Table 15: EAP Stage 4 referrals: Rejections and withdrawals

* where installation cost exceeded grant limit

2.10 Monitoring and inspection, Stage 4

Scottish Gas inspects 100% of heating system measures installed, and a sample of insulation measures. In addition, Bierce Technical Services undertakes independent monitoring and inspection of the quality of both physical installations and customer service. They undertake a continuous survey of both completed installations and work in progress and meet each month with Scottish Government officials and Scottish Gas staff.

The quality of gas installations is generally very high, but Bierce continues to find some issues with documentation not being left for electric installations, which is being monitored.

2.11 HIS outcomes

The reduction in annual fuel bills due to HIS energy efficiency measures totals £457,517, an average saving per installation of £54.

The reduction in fuel bills over the lifetime of the measures (40 years) due to HIS energy efficiency measurers totals £18,300,694, an average saving per installation of £2,149.

The reduction in carbon dioxide emissions over the lifetime of the measures (40 years) due to HIS energy efficiency measures totals 97,865 tonnes, an average saving per installation of 11 tonnes.

Table 16: Home Insulation Scheme Installations 2009-10

Table 17: Home Insulation Scheme property visits and referrals

Table 18: Home Insulation Scheme: referrals for HIS insulation

Table 19: Home Insulation Scheme: referrals to EAP

Table 20: Home Insulation Scheme: other referrals