Donating your Energy Rebate to fight fuel poverty

The Financial Times has published a couple of articles encouraging those who can afford it to donate their £400 energy rebate to help fund frontline work of fuel poverty charities. Here are three charities that writer Claer Barrett suggests.

Picture credit: National Energy Action

All UK households are being awarded a £400 discount on their energy bills to help counter rocketing energy prices. The rebate is being applied over six months from October to March 2023 as a series of automatic reductions in energy bills of £66/67 (some customers may receive the money directly into their bank account).

For many, the rebate will be desperately needed. But if you don’t need the extra help, Claer Barratt writing in the Financial Times, recommended three fuel poverty charities that could be welcome recipients of the money:

Fuel Bank Foundation provides emergency top-up vouchers to people with prepayment meters. It has a network of about 400 ‘fuel banks’ around the UK and works with referral partners including food banks.  It also helps people using its services to access other benefits and forms of help, such as referring them to debt advice. https://www.fuelbankfoundation.org/

National Energy Action is one of the biggest UK fuel poverty charities. It conducts research, supports those in need and campaigns about the plight of the estimated one in three UK households that are likely to be dragged into fuel poverty by current rising prices. https://www.nea.org.uk/

CAPUK (Christians Against Poverty) is one of the UK’s biggest providers of free debt advice, and also distributes energy top-up vouchers to people in need. https://capuk.org/

Note that UK taxpayers can make charitable donations using Gift Aid, thereby increasing the £400 energy rebate to £500.

Also don’t forget that foodbanks are experiencing unprecedented demand for their services. See our regular contact details for Lewes food banks if you’d like to donate your fuel rebate to one of them.

You can tell others about the campaign using the hashtag #donatetherebate on social media.