Government ECO-4 and ECOflex grants.

[brianmoooore]

Anyone on here have experience of these grants, either as a recipient or an installer?
A few weeks ago I was contacted by an acquaintance, who was being bombarded by emails and phone calls, encouraging her to sign up to this scheme, and she wanted me to "look into it" and say whether I thought it was legit or a scam.
I did as asked,and discovered it was a government backed scheme, which she would be eligible for, courtesy of being in receipt of certain benefits.I told her to go ahead, which she did, although no work has actually been done yet.
While checking out the scheme, I discovered that people with certain health conditions are also eligible, and it looks look my wife might meet the requirements, so I've stuck in an application as well. If the government wants to buy us solar panels and a heat pump at no cost to us, who am I to argue?

 

[DPG]

Anyone on here have experience of these grants, either as a recipient or an installer?
A few weeks ago I was contacted by an acquaintance, who was being bombarded by emails and phone calls, encouraging her to sign up to this scheme, and she wanted me to "look into it" and say whether I thought it was legit or a scam.
I did as asked,and discovered it was a government backed scheme, which she would be eligible for, courtesy of being in receipt of certain benefits.I told her to go ahead, which she did, although no work has actually been done yet.
While checking out the scheme, I discovered that people with certain health conditions are also eligible, and it looks look my wife might meet the requirements, so I've stuck in an application as well. If the government wants to buy us solar panels and a heat pump at no cost to us, who am I to argue?

Yes get it applied for before labour get in!

 

[nicebutdim]

Provided there's no cost to you I can't see why not. In the past I looked into a few government grant schemes and found it was cheaper to ignore the grant and go with better quality.

 

[brianmoooore]

Provided there's no cost to you I can't see why not. In the past I looked into a few government grant schemes and found it was cheaper to ignore the grant and go with better quality.

That's what I've always assumed, especially as all this kind of work is the sort of thing I'm quite capable of doing myself. Bit like 5 year guarantees on electrical appliances where they give you a free £10 part and charge £150 to fit it.
I take it that the work is actually done by closed list contractors who have found the golden goose, judging by their enthusiasm.
I submitted a form online yesterday, and had a phone call this afternoon confirming my address, some questions about my property and the general nature of my wife's illness, which ended with her confirming that we should be eligible and saying that we'd be contacted soon, to arrange a date for a 'surveyor to call. I realise that 'soon' can mean different things to different people, but I'd just started to look at my emails, when my phone rang again, and this time it was the 'surveyor' arranging a date for next week.
They've already assured my acquaintance that she will have to pay absolutely nothing, apart from some decorating, if they insulate and board any inside walls, and the word "free" has been used in relation to my project.

 

[nicebutdim]

I'd really love to see these schemes taken out of the hands of devolved governments as they're generally very different from one part of the UK to another and our own local 'government' has a solid record when it comes to repeatedly making a complete mess of such matters.