Prepayment meter customers typically pay more for their energy than those paying by direct debit. But the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt says from 1 July the “prepayment penalty” will end, cutting bills for over four million households.

The change is expected to come into effect from 1 July through updates to the Energy Price Guarantee, with the full announcement on the reform to come in the Chancellor’s budget today

Social housing should be safe, secure and well maintained. If you have an issue with your landlord, it’s now easier to make things right.

The Charter says every resident should expect to: ​

• Be safe in their home​
• Know how their landlord is performing​
• Have their complaints dealt with promptly and fairly​
• Be treated with respect​, backed by a strong consumer regulator for tenants
• Have their voice heard by their landlord​
• Have a good quality home and neighbourhood to live in​
• Be supported to take their first step to ownership

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The government is already taking action to achieve the aims sets out in the Charter for Social Housing Residents. This includes:

1. Allowing for residents to take complaints directly to the Housing Ombudsman Service without delay – by removing the need to go to your MP, local councillor or tenants’ panel first and to wait 8 weeks after completing your landlord’s process
2. Making smoke alarms mandatory in all social homes, and carbon monoxide alarms mandatory in all social homes with a gas supply
3. Launching the Social Housing Quality Resident panel to bring together residents from across England to share their views with the government on our approach to driving up the quality of housing
4. Publishing new tenant satisfaction measures from the regulator to make landlord performance more visible to tenants so they can hold their landlord to account
5. Publishing an anti-social behaviour information package to clarify the roles of the agencies responsible for tackling anti-social behaviour and the help and support available for tenants
6. New powers introduced in the Social Housing Regulation Bill for the Housing Ombudsman to identify best practice in case handling, including publishing a new Complaint Handling Code with which social housing landlords are expected to comply and this will be monitored.
7. The Housing Ombudsman can also now publish guidance on good practice and order social landlords to complete a self-assessment against this guidance when a complaint is received.
8. In August 2022, we announced that the Department will highlight poor practice by landlords including on its social media platforms. We will publish `Severe Maladministration’ findings by the Housing Ombudsman and judgements of the Regulator of Social Housing that consumer standards have been breached.

The Times are reporting that Jeremy Hunt is “poised” to extend the government’s £2,500 energy price guarantee for a further three months from April – June rather than lift it to £3,000 as planned.

The move, which is expected by energy companies, is an effort to limit increases in people’s bills until the summer, and would protect households from a 20% hike in bills.

A three-month extension would take us to July, when analysts expect Ofgem’s price cap to drop to around £2,100 per year (for a typical household), well below the government’s current guarantee.

The energy price cap is set by Ofcom as a limit on the maximum amount suppliers can charge customers on standard tariffs for each unit of gas and electricity they use, and sets a maximum daily standing charge.

For a typical dual-fuel household paying by direct debit, the price cap is currently set at £4,279/year, expected to fall to £3,280 from 1 April.

The Government pays suppliers of gas and electricity to discount these rates under the price cap with the Energy Price Guarantee, so a consumer with typical use currently pays £2,500/year, but this is expected to rise to £3000/year from 1^st April

In addition to this consumers should get a £400 discount directly from their supplier to help with energy bills over winter 2022 to 2023. This is called the Energy Bills Support Scheme (EBSS).

The change in the Energy Price Guarantee means the average household on direct debit with dual fuel will pay another £40.00/month, however the effect of ending the subsidy under the Energy Bills Support Scheme will in effect mean an overall rise of over £100.00/month.

Whilst the new Energy Price Guarantee is expected to last for the next 12 months, if Ofgem’s price cap falls below this level, households will pay the lower amount.

This is predicted to happen in July, with analysts Cornwall Insight forecasting the price cap to fall to £2,153 a year, and staying around that level when it changes again in October.

Cost of Living Payments 2023 to 2024

The government has announced when further Cost of Living Payments will be made between spring 2023 and spring 2024. These payments are:

• £301 for people on an eligible low income benefit, to be paid during spring 2023
• £150 for people on an eligible disability benefit, to be paid during summer 2023
• £300 for people on an eligible low income benefit, to be paid during autumn 2023
• £300 for pensioner households, to be paid during winter 2023 to 2024
• £299 for people on an eligible low income benefit, to be paid in spring 2024

Further guidance will be published when more details have been announced, including the qualifying dates.

If you are worried about debt, please come into out offices and an experienced adviser will be able to provide free, confidential debt advice. We are open from 09:30 to 11:00 Monday to Friday – no appointment is necessary

We will need accurate up-to-date information about all your income and spending.

This includes the following

• Wage slips,
• Benefit statements,
• Pension income statements,
• Last 3 months Bank statements,
• Utility bills such as gas, electricity and water.
• Council Tax Bill
• Tenancy agreement or details of rent payable
• Mortgage Statement (if appicable)

We will also need

• your latest letters/statements from your creditors;
• details of your addresses for the past 6 years
• your free statutory credit report from a credit reference agency. 

You can obtain your statutory report from 

Experian at https://www.experian.co.uk/consumer/statutory-report.html

Equifax at https://www.equifax.co.uk/Products/credit/statutory-report.html

​​​​​​​Transunion at https://www.transunionstatreport.co.uk/CreditReport/AboutYou

Your statutory credit report details your credit history. It contains public and private information recorded in your name and is available to authorised lenders carrying out a credit check. Credit reports are used by lenders to help them in making decisions about whether to give you credit or not.

You can obtain your free statutory credit report from:

Experian at https://www.experian.co.uk/consumer/statutory-report.html

Equifax at https://www.equifax.co.uk/Products/credit/statutory-report.html

​​​​​​​Transunion at https://www.transunionstatreport.co.uk/CreditReport/AboutYou

Following Energy Security Secretary Grant Shapps’ intervention, all energy suppliers have now committed to ending the forced installation of prepayment meters in vulnerable customers’ homes.

The following venues are open in Ashford providing food banks and other services, please check each listing for services offered.

Ashford Advice Seabrooke House, Church Road, Ashford

Food Bank vouchers for FareShare outlets in Ashford from 9.30am to 11am Monday to Friday (Details of outlets and opening times are on the voucher)

Vinnies Diner, Bright City Church, Bank Street, Ashford.

Free hot lunch, pudding, tea or coffee and food bank available.  The lunch is for anyone, whether rich or poor! from 11.30 – 1.30 pm on Mondays

Food bank also available

Open Arms, Ashford Community Church, 54 Francis Road, Ashford

Free hot meal for homeless and vulnerable people. Tuesday from 10 am – 1 pm

Food bank also available

Salvation Army, 115 Cudworth Road, South Willesborough, Ashford TN24 0BE

Food Bank 10am – 12pm on a Friday

Community Fridge – Peoples Pantry Repton Connect Community Centre

STEP 1

If you are in need of food or hygiene

items, check out our website for the list

of free items we have in stock

STEP 2

Call or email us and request

the items you need

STEP 3

We’ll arrange a time slot for you to

come and collect them from

Repton Connect Community Centre.

We’ll leave the items outside the door for you.

NO RULES, NO FUSS, NO REFERRALS.

If you need something, you’re welcome to request it.

We haven’t forgotten people who aren’t able to leave

their house. Just contact us and we’ll try to help.

If you would like to request items, or make a donation, please call 01233 808023 or email: info@reptonct.uk

To Good to Go – End food waste

Join millions of food waste warriors by downloading Too Good To Go – the world’s number 1 app for fighting food waste. Pick up delicious meals and ingredients from local stores.

To download Google app or Apple store

https://toogoodtogo.co.uk/images/buttons/google-play/en-gb.svg

https://toogoodtogo.co.uk/images/buttons/app-store/en-gb.svg

To download Google app or Apple store visit Website https://toogoodtogo.co.uk/

TESCO is giving away free food in a bid to cut down on food waste.

To get hold of your freebie you’ll need to download the Olio app is free to download from Apple Store for iPhones or Google Play Store if you’re on android.

You will need to register an account using your email address or Facebook account, and switch on your location settings.

You can then browse the app to find out what’s up for grabs in your local area.

When you find something that you like, click on the item and then click the red “Request This Listing” button.

You will then be able to message the volunteer to arrange to collect it.

To list food on the app, you’ll need to click on the red + button and add a description. 

Ashford Advice offers a service to write your will for an an affordable fee. You do not have to live in Ashford. We can also assist with Probate and Last Power of Attorney. Please contact our offices for an appointment with a solicitor.