Corporate Responsibility Report 2006

British Gas Home Energy Care Register

Our Home Energy Care Register provides essential services for some of our most vulnerable customers. Almost 560,000 customers now benefit from the service, which provides annual safety checks and specially designed appliance controls and adaptors for older people, people with disabilities and those who are chronically sick.

Home Heat Helpline

We continued to support the National Home Heat Helpline for customers who may be in need of support, such as help with paying their energy bills. The service is run by the Energy Retail Association and funded by British Gas and the other major energy suppliers.

This helpline offers one point of contact, connecting customers to advice and help from their energy supplier. Callers can speak to expert advisers, including former health professionals who are trained to give advice on how to stay warm during the cold weather.

The helpline can also take calls from intermediaries on behalf of vulnerable people, such as friends, family, carers, social workers or health visitors. A specialist British Gas team takes calls from British Gas customers and puts them in touch with the most appropriate support.

The helpline number is 0800 33 66 99 and lines are open from 9am to 8pm Monday to Friday and 10am to 3pm on Saturday.

British Gas XtraCare

British Gas has given a public commitment that we will “not disconnect anyone who we know to be vulnerable”. “XtraCare” is the process we have adopted to help us proactively identify signs of vulnerability amongst our customers; how we keep this information on our systems and what we need to do once we have identified someone as being potentially vulnerable.

We describe all of the support we are giving to our more vulnerable customers under the term XtraCare. In other words, we’re taking XtraCare of our more vulnerable customers. Whist this is a voluntary undertaking, the protection of the more vulnerable has a high level of awareness amongst the Government and consumer bodies such as energywatch.

As part of our day to day contact with our customers, we’re now listening out for any signs the customer may give us that might indicate that they are vulnerable.   For example, they may mention that they have a carer visit them in their home.  If this is the case, we need to be extra careful in how we manage and support them.

Once we identify someone as being an XtraCare customer, we will:

• encourage the customer to take advantage of our fuel poverty/energy efficiency measures
• promote our social initiatives such as Warm-a-life and the Help the Aged Price Promise
• encourage the customer to seek financial grants from the British Gas Energy Trust Fund
• promote membership of our Home Energy Care scheme
• refer the customer to Social Services if appropriate, for additional support.

As well as offering the above service the customer can be placed on a specific debt path, which is similar to the guaranteed supply debt path that does not threaten disconnection of supply.  The emphasis is on more proactive contact with the customer to agree a long term payment arrangement.