“I can sleep again” How the Green Doctor erased years of energy debt
Today (26th November) is Fuel Poverty Awareness Day. Around 6 million UK households are experiencing fuel poverty, including Rabia from Leicester who was struggling to pay off a £2,500 energy debt. With help from regional charity Groundwork Five Counties, Rabia had her debt wiped.
42-year-old Rabia lives in Leicester with her husband and four children. After moving into a new home, she was shocked to receive a £2,000 energy bill from her previous address.
She says: “I had a payment arrangement while we lived in the old property but there must have been a miscommunication, because I thought it was all cleared when we moved. I could only afford to pay back £120 a month, but the supplier wanted more.
“That’s when the debt started to mount and it eventually was over £2,500. I was so worried, the debt was getting worse each month. I could hardly sleep, and my mental health really took a tumble.”
Around this time, Rabia attended a community event where she met Green Doctor Fayad. He is an energy and money expert from charity Groundwork Five Counties, providing free support to households around the East Midlands – including debt advice.
Fayad offered to help Rabia sort out a more manageable debt repayment plan and visited her at home to review the situation and ring the energy supplier together.
Rabia says: “Fayad negotiated with them, and they offered to wipe part of the debt if I paid substantially more back every month. We carefully considered the pros and cons, and I decided it was a good plan. I borrowed money and accepted the offer.”
The supplier took longer than agreed to start the repayment plan, and once it was in place Rabia soon saw her debt decreasing. After a few months, she was left with £1,700 to pay.
“I was pleased the debt was going down but continued to be stressed, as I was juggling money I had to borrow because of the late repayment start. Fayad helped me to again talk to the supplier to say the terms of the agreement weren’t kept and I was unhappy.
“I never expected the outcome of that conversation – they wrote off the rest of my debt completely! I have rarely slept as well as I did that night. The burden of debt was very heavy to carry for years, and I feel so light now.”
On top of helping Rabia with her debt, Fayad also provided advice on the family’s daily energy usage as their electricity bill was very high. He found one of the causes to be that their immersion heater was always on, which is unnecessary unless the boiler has a fault.
Just by switching this off, using the eco-settings on her appliances, and encouraging her family to be more energy conscious, Rabia immediately noticed a difference in her monthly bills.
She says: “Getting support from Green Doctor has really changed our life, I can’t thank Fayad enough.”
The free Green Doctor service is available in the East Midlands to people of any age and background, whether they own their home, rent, or are a council or social housing tenant. It is funded by local and national funders.
For more information and to get a free home visit, visit the website: https://www.groundwork.org.uk/fivecounties/green-doctor/