Lo in favour of eligibility criteria review for Warm Homes Scheme
20/01/10
Anna Lo MLA, has called upon the Minister for Social Development to review the eligibility criteria for the Warm Homes Scheme. Speaking in the Assembly on 19th January 2010, Anna said:"There is a flaw in the current contract, and the criteria needs to be amended so that assistance can get to those who need it. At present, heating-intervention prioritisation is for only coal, LPG or Economy 7 properties. There is no provision for the replacement, or repair, of broken, or inefficient, oil or gas systems. Only coal, LPG or Economy 7 systems meet the criteria, and they will be replaced. That narrows the field too tightly for the scheme to be as effective as we would like it to be.
We have to ask whether it is right that people in homes with broken or wasteful heating systems cannot apply for assistance. Such people sometimes qualify under the benefits criteria, but do not get the intervention that they need because they do not have the right heating system. It is not right that operators have to walk out of properties in which people have broken heating systems and not do anything: I know that that is the case. They can pump a whole house with white beads and insulate lofts to the nth degree, but they cannot fix a heating system because the criteria do not allow them to do so. That is not right."
To read the full debate, please click on the following link:
http://www.niassembly.gov.uk/record/reports2009/100119.htm#4
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