You may have been irritated recently by answering the telephone only to receive a pre-recorded message that starts, "This is an urgent message for people on benefits regarding your oil or LPG boiler...."
These people are cashing in on energy companies' Home Heating Cost Reduction Obligation (HHCRO), which is part of the governments' Energy Company Obligation (ECO)scheme.
Under HHCRO, obligated suppliers must promote measures which improve the ability of low income and vulnerable households (the ‘affordable warmth group’) to heat their homes. This includes actions that result in heating savings, such as the replacement or repair of a boiler.
So, if you are on benefits, you can get a new boiler in your home under this scheme, but your home does not have to belong to you, thus making the ultimate beneficiary of this government largesse not the poor person on benefits, but their much richer landlord, who gets a new boiler in his property free of charge.
Debate Magazine
