Loft Insulation Scheme

There is some sort of loft insulation scheme in the area.  People keep coming to the door asking if we want insulation done at possibly no cost to us.  I ask where the money comes from and they say it comes mostly from the utility companies.

Does anyone know if it comes from public funds.  My FLR(M) visa specifically states I can not have access to public funds.  These people are insistent that it is ok, but clearly are not home office officials.

Thank you!
Amy and Ant

Good question-- I believe it is a government grant-- and I definitely wouldn't trust what they say-- I had one ask if anyone was receiving benefits when I said no...he asked if I knew someone who was that could say they were living there so I would get it for free. They now say you can get it for free even not on benefits--I personally don't trust any of it--but I could be wrong!

I wouldn't do it either if I had a loft. I too heard that it was a government thing and wouldn't want to deal with the stress of figuring out if it's a public fund or not.

There's a government-run website where you can look up available grants and see what's on offer. It's legit but, of course, I can't remember the name of it. That's how we got our wall insulation done for next to nothing, as well as some money toward our replacement windows.

Your loft thing may very well be a scam, but don't write it off before you've looked into it! It could be a great deal!

Your loft thing may very well be a scam, but don't write it off before you've looked into it! It could be a great deal!

I agree..look into it-- just saying don't trust the person on the doorstep, they are generally salesmen just trying to get you to go with their company.

So glad this came up!

I tracked down the website ( https://www.government-grants.co.uk/) and turns out we qualify for loft and cavity wall insulation.  Perfect, considering we're about to start renovations in a few months! May as well get it all done now...

So glad this came up!

I tracked down the website ( https://www.government-grants.co.uk/) and turns out we qualify for loft and cavity wall insulation.  Perfect, considering we're about to start renovations in a few months! May as well get it all done now...

Errrr just kidding.  Just got an email to tell us that it doesn't include NI, just the REST of the UK.  Once again we're the special case.   

For those who're wondering, the money doesn't come from the government. Utility companies are obliged to spend a certain amount of money per year (i.e. a bucketload) to reduce total residential energy consumption, and they can be fined (two bucketloads) if they don't save enough energy. This is why you can find energy saving light bulbs in Tesco for 5p - they're subsidised by one of the energy companies, who can then put the assumed energy saved from the bulb against their target. It'll usually have the company's name on the packet.

Come the end of the year, they're either under the target (which it sounds like this year - going door to door asking people if they can insulate them to save them being fined) or over in which case all the money dries up until the next year.

If you're on various benefits you can get it fully free, I'm not sure if that's the government topping it up or just beating the utility companies with a big stick until they do...

If you're at all worried, you can get loft insulation very cheaply at any of the DIY sheds (often £1/roll), subsidised by the same scheme. No checking involved, it's usually a pretty easy job assuming your loft isn't full of junk, and will pay for itself very rapidly.

For those who're wondering, the money doesn't come from the government. Utility companies are obliged to spend a certain amount of money per year (i.e. a bucketload) to reduce total residential energy consumption, and they can be fined (two bucketloads) if they don't save enough energy. This is why you can find energy saving light bulbs in Tesco for 5p - they're subsidised by one of the energy companies, who can then put the assumed energy saved from the bulb against their target. It'll usually have the company's name on the packet.

Come the end of the year, they're either under the target (which it sounds like this year - going door to door asking people if they can insulate them to save them being fined) or over in which case all the money dries up until the next year.

If you're on various benefits you can get it fully free, I'm not sure if that's the government topping it up or just beating the utility companies with a big stick until they do...

It is a legit program.  Here's some info: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/free-cavity-loft-insulation You just need to chose who does it for you.  It used to be you needed certain benefits, but that has changed and anyone is eligible now.  So for once, the "if it sounds too good to be true" thing does not hold true. 

I just did this through one of the utility companies--not my own, because they offered us an extra £100 since we had child tax credits and a bit of working tax credit.  So I not only got the free insulation, but £100 to boot!  Call around and you'll find out more.  I'd do it quickly though because there's talk of ending the schemes soon.

I was initially approached by a separate company from the utility companies and was very sceptical--and then I figured out the program was legit, but I didn't like how the company was dealing with me.  They didn't even show up for the assessment session I set up.  It felt very nice when they rang me a few weeks later and asked if I was satisfied with their service, and I informed them that I wasn't and nobody had come at all, even though we stayed in all day.  He did checking, and found their contractor had said he came to the house.  I tattled that he had certainly not, and was scamming them if he said he did.  They offered to send another, and I again enjoyed telling them I had called a utility company, set it up without the middle man, and had the insulation in my loft already in less time than it took for them to just come and assess the loft and walls.

So glad this came up!

I tracked down the website ( https://www.government-grants.co.uk/) and turns out we qualify for loft and cavity wall insulation.  Perfect, considering we're about to start renovations in a few months! May as well get it all done now...

Yes, that's the website where I found out about the cavity wall insulation last year! I'm so sorry you don't qualify, BBreslin. Having the walls insulated and the windows replaced has made a huge difference to our heating bills!

We got it done last spring.  Eventually.  But, since the house belongs to my MIL, we didn't have to worry about the intricacies of the funding.

My MIL got a phone call early in March, asking if she was interested.  She asked specifically if the loft would need to be cleared out or anything before they came to do it.  The guy on the phone told her no, she didn't need to do anything.  So, we were the first house on the schedule for when the team arrived from the mainland.

Except that the team missed the ferry.  So, they got here late, and we were rescheduled for the end of the contract, several weeks later.  Then, when they showed up, they took one look into the loft and said 'oh, we can't do anything.  There's too much stuff in the way' and left. 

We found out later that, apparently, they'd spent their entire 2 months here being kicked out of one hotel after another for drinking/drug use, never paid their bills ('oh, the company is supposed pay'), and despite charging the Comhairle (or whomever was paying the subsidy that time) for each house on the list, found reasons they couldn't actually do the work on most of them.  Thankfully, at least they never charged us.  If they'd put in any insulation (or pretended to) it would have cost £200.

Luckily, a few months later, someone came by from the utility company to survey the houses who'd requested the loft insulation, and see if it had actually been done.  And when we told him it hadn't, he said we were eligible for a different scheme, and it wouldn't cost us anything.  A few weeks later, a couple of boys from Stornoway came down, and had it finished in a couple of hours. 

I definitely recommend getting the insulation put in.  It's made a HUGE difference in the comfort in the house.  But do be a bit careful about the various contractors.  Ask around, see if anyone else in your area has any experience with them.

We just had ours done on Monday after being pestered...er I mean visited every other day by different companies. We had the same worries although the house/mortgage is in my name (UK partner)... after the last guy explained it properly to us (as pdf27 said) we decided to get it done to a) stop people pestering us b) to get it done and c) the guy actually explained it properly unlike the others...

We had to pay £150 but it was cheaper than if we had to get it done without the help, and it did need doing. Only time will tell if it saves money in the long run 

It's almost certainly legit.
We had ours done recently, a guy was going door to door when I came home from work. We had to pay £60 because nobody on benefits. Story I got was that the council got a grant from the government, if you were on benefits it was free.
They did it quickly and as I'd  been in house 20 years but never been in the loft space I had no idea what we already had...turned out there was some there that had all but disintegrated! It was something I was thinking probably needed doing and was much cheaper than doing it myself.
I'd never thought about the "public funds" aspect.....if you are married to a UK citizen then that wouldn't be an issue anyway as they'd be entitled to it, but I don't think it comes under that criteria anyway.

We just had ours done on Monday after being pestered...er I mean visited every other day by different companies. We had the same worries although the house/mortgage is in my name (UK partner)... after the last guy explained it properly to us (as pdf27 said) we decided to get it done to a) stop people pestering us b) to get it done and c) the guy actually explained it properly unlike the others...
We had to pay £150 but it was cheaper than if we had to get it done without the help, and it did need doing. Only time will tell if it saves money in the long run 

See, I'm questioning you having to pay at all.  There are lots of schemes right now through reputable businesses like Tesco, Eon, and the like that cover your insulation for free--whether you receive benefits or not.  I don't think you should have had to pay £150.  Of course, I'm sure it depend on where you are--for instance, things never seem to apply to NI, but I believe most of England and Wales is covered (maybe Scotland, but I'm not sure as I was looking for Wales when we did ours).  The only time that benefits come into it is seeing if you get extra incentive money.  We got an extra £100 for being on tax credits, which applies to quite a few people.  We could have had the insulation completely free even without that though.

If you just call some of the companies in the link I posted from MoneySavingExpert, you can set it up for yourself without worrying about the guys coming door to door.  I always feel safer that way.

See, I'm questioning you having to pay at all. 

We paid something toward our insulation as well. I think that's pretty standard.