Carers Trust
Supporting 40,000 unpaid carers nationwide to maintain a safe and warm home
Our project at a glance
- Participating GDNs: Cadent, Northern Gas Networks, SGN and Wales & West Utilities
- Strategic priority area: Supporting priority customer groups
- Support target: 146,000 households over two years
- Duration: March 2024 to March 2026
- Investment: £4,075,771 over two years
- Forecast SROI: £42.03
Why we’re working together
The cost-of-living crisis has plunged many of the UK’s seven million unpaid carers into financial hardships.
In August 2022, Carers Trust surveyed unpaid family carers across the UK. The survey found 63% of unpaid carers were worried about being able to afford energy bills, 25% of unpaid carers had to cut back on food and 14% used a food bank.
We’ve come together with Britain’s three other gas networks to deliver a national programme to help alleviate the financial pressures facing unpaid carers through energy safeguarding, energy efficiency advice and financial resilience support. We aim to reach 40,000 carers in the most deprived areas of England, Scotland and Wales, and support a further 106,000 people indirectly through their carer family members.
Project objectives
- Providing one-to-one energy safeguarding and fuel poverty support for unpaid carers
- Providing microgrants to households in energy crisis to provide immediate relief
- Promoting the Priority Services Register and helping households to sign up for the free service
- Educating households on carbon monoxide (CO) safety and providing free CO alarms where required
How we’re working together
One-to-one energy safeguarding and fuel poverty support
We’re working with local independent carers’ charities who are members of the Carers Trust Network across 23 locations nationwide. Through these charities, we’re reaching carers with support around income maximisation, fuel poverty advice, energy efficiency guidance and energy safeguarding services, such as locking cooker valves and the PSR.
Financial management and reliance workshops
We’re running a programme of financial management and resilience workshops aimed at increasing carers’ financial literacy, with particular reference to avoiding and reducing fuel debt, how to access existing support and increasing energy efficiencies in the home.
How to get involved
Accessing the Carers Trust service
As one of our VCMA network partners, you can refer your clients to Carers Trust by getting in touch with their local support service through the Carers Trust website.
If you’re an unpaid carer and need support to stay safe and warm at home, you can find more information about support in your local area on the Carers Trust website.
Becoming a partner
You can find out more about working with Carers Trust by contacting the charity through the charity’s website.