Partnership provides timely support for people living in fuel crisis

By the end of last winter (2024/25), more than a quarter of a million people had turned to Fuel Bank Foundation for an emergency prepayment meter top-up or alternative fuel delivery. As a charity, the cost of providing this support runs into the tens of millions of pounds. However, the human cost of not providing it is far greater.

It’s thanks to the generosity of our funding partners that Fuel Bank can continue to help people who are in desperate need and have no one else to turn to.

Partners such as The Watches of Switzerland Group Foundation (WoSGF), which Fuel Bank has been working with since 2022. The Foundation is the umbrella for Watches of Switzerland Group’s charitable activities, which are focused on the prevention or relief of poverty, the advancement of education, and the relief of those in need by reason of youth, age, ill health, disability, financial hardship or other disadvantage.Since launching the Watches of Switzerland Group Foundation in 2021, and including this financial year, the Group has allocated £9 million to the Foundation.

Thanks to the partnership and funding from WoSG Foundation, 27,172 people, including 10,965 children, have received crisis energy support. Nineteen Fuel Bank Centres have also been launched in key locations, including Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Leeds and Liverpool.

Furthermore, hundreds of heated throws have been supplied to reduce heating costs within people’s homes.

Matthew Cole, CEO of Fuel Bank Foundation, said the partnership with The WoSG Foundation has had an incredibly positive impact on the lives of its clients.

He said: “Having the support of The Watches of Switzerland Group Foundation has enabled Fuel Bank to reach more people, who otherwise would have been left living in cold, dark and dangerous homes.”

People like Harriett, a single mother of three living in a council-owned property in Newcastle upon Tyne. Keeping her prefab home at a comfortable temperature is a challenge. It becomes unbearably cold in the winter and too hot in the summer. As a result, Harriett’s daughter struggles with worsening asthma symptoms during the colder months.

Harriet has high levels of debt on both of her prepayment meters, along with other essential bills, such as her phone bill. Feeling trapped with no option to borrow from loved ones, Harriet describes her financial situation as a vicious cycle, where the need to provide for her children forces her to rely on high-interest loans just to ensure they have enough to eat.

Harriet’s experience of financial hardship feels incredibly isolating. She avoids leaving home to save money and has little social interaction.

She said: “I don’t go out. I literally live in the house all day every day, doing the same repetitive cycle of doing nothing, and depression takes a toll on me.”

When Harriett turned to Fuel Bank for support, she described receiving the fuel voucher as a moment of great relief, which allowed her to give her children what they needed, like a warm meal and a bath – things many of us take for granted.

“I was drained and stressed until I got the vouchers,” she said. “They helped out a lot and did relieve a lot of pressure.”