Warm Front Grant

---lee---

According to my interpretation of the rules at:

http://www.direct.gov.uk/Bfsl1/BenefitsAndFinancialSupport/BenefitsAndFinancialSupportArticles/fs/en?CONTENT_ID=10018661&chk=MjGOPK

We qualified on the basis that our 4 year old daughter receives higher rate DLA. My wife called a number about it and spoke to a lady who ran through a series of questions. At the end, she said that we qualified and they would arrange for a surveyor to come out. This was a few weeks ago.

The surveyor telephoned last night to say he could come out today. He ran through a few questions and said that we did not qualify as we did not get WTC. I’m now confused as to if we are entitled to the grant or not. Hope this is enough information - can anybody help?

Thanks,

Lee.

innovate

I think you should call them again because the reason given by the surveyor does not tally with what's on the website.

According to the website, WTC is only one of the possible qualifiers, it is not listed as a pre-requisite.

However, the webiste says you may be able to get a grant, so it seems it is down to the surveyor to decide. He should still give you a valid reason, something he doesn't appear to have done.

Trix

We had our cavity wall insulation done a few years ago with the Warm front grant, and have just been awarded another grant for our central heating to be updated. Our youngest daughter gets higher rate DLA for both mobility and care, yet the grant WAS only based on the WTC & CTC (and child benefit came into it as far as I remember) which surprised us.
You may have just gotten some duff information originally so chase up the Warm Front people to confirm their criteria.
See HERE and it states that you or your partner must be recieving DLA, but no mention of if anyone else in the house recieves it.

Zziggi

innovate wrote:

I think you should call them again because the reason given by the surveyor does not tally with what's on the website.

According to the website, WTC is only one of the possible qualifiers, it is not listed as a pre-requisite.

However, the webiste says you may be able to get a grant, so it seems it is down to the surveyor to decide. He should still give you a valid reason, something he doesn't appear to have done.

I think the website says you *may* qualify because obviously if you already had all the best insulation etc etc then they would not help you even if you were on a necessary benefit to qualify. This is how i understand the word "may" and this is why it is up to the surveryor to decided this. If you have one of the benefits listed then you qualify as long as you need the insulation doing. Does this sounds reasonable as to why it is up to the surveyor to decide?
Anyway, I think the surveryor has got it wrong. Maybe give 'em a ring? I would.

Zziggi

Trix wrote:

We had our cavity wall insulation done a few years ago with the Warm front grant, and have just been awarded another grant for our central heating to be updated.

That *IS* interesting as we had our cavity walls/loft done under the warm front grant a couple of year ago. WHen our boiler broke earlier in the year, we were told that you can only have 1 warm front grant. As our boiler was old but still working when we had the warm front grant, we cannot now have another grant to cover the boiler. I then applied via DSS for help with a new boiler and got turned down.

Can i just ask, was in another warm front grant you got awarded?

Trix

Zzigi - Yes it was a brand new £2,700 grant. We asked when we applied for it about the fact we had already had a grant for the cavity walls. When we said it was a few years ago, we were told that as of June this year it was classed as a new application. I kept thinking it must be wrong and at some point they were going to say it was a mistake, but a couple of days ago we had full confirmation saying how much the grant was (£2,700) and the breakdown of the cost of the work (the guy who was doing the work had already been to assess the heating system and put in his quote to Warm Front). All we have to pay is the excess of £29.79:j
The letter even said that we could check with our local authority to see if funding was available to help meet our costs! I won't do that though because it would be a bit of a cheek, considering I'm getting over two and a half grand of heating system for under £30!

sueh6

Exactly the same thing has happened to me today, the surveyors just left. According to him we do not qualify as neither me nor my partner is in receipt of DLA; my eleven year old son is. We would only qualify if we were on WTC and a low income coupled with his DLA.

I wish they'd have told me this when they rung a few days ago. I explained the whole situation to the lady then and she said we qualified! A case of the left arm not knowing what the right arm's doing I think!

Sue

---lee---

Thanks for your comments everyone.

I found another link - this is the online application eaga partnership:

http://www.eaga.co.uk/Grants/warm_front.htm

It's a bit clearer than other interpretations. I think we fall foul of the qualification as it’s our young daughter that receives the DLA and not one of the householders (by their definition). In this instance, householder is defined as ‘applicants spouse, or partner, if they are living with the applicant’.

Seems a shame that in this instance, children with DLA seem to be at a disadvantage in this instance to adults with DLA.

black-saturn

I must say with the experiences I've had with Warm Front agents they are not the most friendliest people in the world.

Trix

I don't know about warm front agents not being the friendliest, but the first one I got seemed like a 'dodgy dealer' type and the last one....well an even dodgier dealer type :rolleyes:
The heating system we have at the minute is around 30 years old. It's working but I was concerned because of it's age that it is more likely to pack up (as well as it's probably not very economical). When the agent came I told him this and he advised me to 'tell the person who comes around to assess it that it sometimes stops working. If he tests it and says it seems to be working fine now, just tell him it's unpredictable and could do it the minute he leaves'
I didn't do this, but the guy who came to look it at agreed it was very old and apparantly 'sounded a bit sludgy' so was happy enough to say it needed replacing (then again, it's in his intrest to say the job needs doing).
The only part I was disappointed with was that he said he wouldn't do a combi-boiler as all of our downstairs has laminate flooring (but for the deal I'm getting, it's still not a 'complaint' - just a disappointment). Apparantly it's because a combi-boiler uses so much extra pressure, the pipes - which are old - could be put under too much strain and therefore greater risk of bursting. If a pipe did burst it would be very hard to find out where it had burst and get to it easily with laminate flooring. This is what he told me - whether it's right or wrong, I haven't a clue

Savvy_Sue

I don't know a lot about combi boilers, but I do know that they require a certain amount of pressure: if it drops too low there's no heat and no hot water (brrr!) You have to fiddle a couple of taps to get the pressure up: I know DH did it once and the person who lives with us who normally does this kind of thing nearly went ballistic when he saw how much pressure the system was under!

So I think what was said makes sense. If you're still in doubt, ask on the 'In my home' board?

Although I thought you HAD to have a combi boiler these days? Or is it something else special about new boilers these days? I know they're supposed to be greener these days!