Beverly W

Lately, when not too poorly to lift a finger, I've spent a great deal of time researching into the validity of claims by the government that more people are benefiting from the measures to widen the Warm Home Discount scheme.

Yesterday my MP sent all the details about the scheme from their libraries.

To my thinking it looks like more "smoke & mirrors" from the government.

For a start there's nothing to say what your "Energy Cost Score"

might even be?

There was a consultation held back in 2021, although 2 benefits experts tell me they didn't even know about it.

Furthermore, data held by the VOA to determine characteristics about your house could be out of date or wrong.

I'm no plumber but I've even found out roughly how to calculate BTUs. It's not an exact science but the ground floor in my house is approx. 217064 of them? It's a volume measurement multiplied by 5 or 6 depending on the type/age of the property.

It doesn't take a mathematician like Sunak wants us all to be, to figure out my 2 small radiators aren't sufficient enough to generate that amount of heat for the whole ground floor.

Yet I don't qualify as being in fuel poverty according to their latest algorithms.

It also seems the algorithm made an assumption, that as a terraced property we only have front & rear external walls where in fact we have an entry way between myself & one of the neighbours properties.

In fact I have plenty of thermal images which indicate the coldest walls in dark blue happen to be all around 3 sides of the house

Not only this, but as I have said before there are no longer internal walls to the hall or dining room. So where the room sizes would have been much smaller with adequate radiators to each room, there are only the remaining 2 radiators now.

I had to increase the flow rate of the boiler to 75°f to feel any benefit from having the heating on at all. So there's no chance of reducing it to save money.

I really feel there's an injustice being done here. It's eating away at me.

I'm compelled to find out more. Because it feels as though many more people are loosing out since the change in rules.

My energy efficiency rating is "E". I've already approached the landlord about improving the energy efficiency following a survey on the place. Unfortunately he's not willing to dig into his pockets to increase it.

There once would have been a working fireplace but that is no longer a functional heating solution either.