Cumbernauld Poverty Action is situated in Scotland and provides free advice, support, guidance and training to local people in Cumbernauld and surrounding areas affected by poverty and disability. This is done through providing benefit checks, budgeting advice, energy advice and debt advice referrals. They provide support to local people with the majority struggling due to the increased cost of living. They attend local events, local groups and provide home visits for those who struggle to access their services.  

SGN Safe and Warm Communities funding has enabled Green Isle of Wight to… 

• Support over 110 homes this year with personalised energy advice. 

• Deliver carbon monoxide safety awareness advice to over 100 homes. 

• Support 106 homes to sign up to the Priority Services Register (PSR).  

• Provide an income maximisation service to local people.

We assisted a Client with an application for state pension and housing benefit. Unfortunately she was refused Adult Disability Payment and we were able to provide representation at  tribunal for her. This led to her being awarded standard mobility and standard daily living. She also had an energy check to ensure that she is safe in her home in terms of CO safety and energy saving measures. These applications have gained the client so far £25,363. We will shortly be assisting her to apply for pension credit, increasing her income even further.

Linzi Howie, Co-ordinator

I was able to receive a cooker and fridge freezer due to the help I received with my application to the Scottish Welfare Fund.

Cumbernauld Poverty Action community member

We spoke with Cumbernauld Poverty Action to find out more about how the SGN Safe & Warm funding supported their work.

How has the funding impacted your organisation?  

The funding has helped us to outreach to new communities and to continue providing our income maximisation services to local people. Being able to provide carbon monoxide safety awareness to our community has been helpful and interesting, especially being able to educate those who were not previously aware of the dangers. I think for everybody this project has been a good learning curve, especially for our staff.  

How do you deliver support to community members? 

We have a mixture of ways we support our community members; we provide an income maximisation service to local people. Most of the people we see have health conditions or a disability and will also usually fit the criteria for the PSR, so we will help them to sign up to that. Following on we will then do an energy check and provide them with advice and help with energy debt. We are partnered with Home Energy Scotland so after we complete the energy check we usually then make a referral. We have visited a few local primary schools and spoke to parents and children on hints and tips about energy and it was really engaging. We also went along to Cumbernauld Action for Care of the Elderly and spoke to them, which has led to home visits. 

What advice would you give to other organisations thinking of delivering energy advice in their communities? 

I think the biggest piece of advice would be to access as much training as possible, so you have all the information you need, and have a good understanding on the topics you are delivering advice on. One of our staff members had already done a City and Guilds training which gave us a head start on the project.