EI Enable - brought to you by the EIBF

What can EI Enable help with?

EI Enable is a free confidential service for EI members. We are here 24 hours a day for information, help and advice on anything that is bothering you, or you  just need to get out of the way and off your plate - legal, financial or personal. We’ll make sure you have the right information and support to help you take practical next steps - enabling you to get it sorted, move on and get the most out of life.

You can either call us on +44 (0)300 303 4331 or visit our website - with webinars, hundreds of pages of information and live chat.

Go to the EI Enable website

What can we help with?

Almost anything. Our professional staff can help with more personal issues such as stress, anxiety and bereavement, and a range of practical issues too.

• Stress and wellbeing: we can provide in the moment counselling – just call us on +44 (0)300 303 4331
• Employment: Rights of employees, discrimination, transfer of business, maternity rights, pay, sick pay, health and safety at work, dismissal, redundancy
• Finance: Budgeting, debt, financial planning, retirement
• Education: School closures, problems at school, student grants and student loans
• Health: COVID-19 (in line with Government and NHS Guidelines), patient rights, complaints, health costs, HIV/AIDS, abortion, infertility
• Housing: rent/mortgage payment disputes, buying and selling a house, renting, tenancies, homelessness, neighbour disputes, mortgages, residential care, nursing homes.
• Benefits: housing benefit, incapacity benefits, disability benefits, tax credit, maternity benefits – including whether you qualify and how to claim
• Travel, Transport and Holidays: holiday problems, holiday complaints, driving licences, passports, MOT, seat belts, moving overseas with a car
• Family and Personal: ending a relationship, child support, domestic violence, wills and obtaining probate, getting married, childcare provision, elder care, community care, bereavement, and changing a name
• Communication Problems: phones and mobile phones, complaints about the media, queries about television licences, copyright etc.
• Immigration and Nationality Citizenship: overstays, dual nationality, passport stamps, au pairs, Immigration control and working in the UK
• Legal Enquiries/Solicitors: court procedures, police, solicitors bills, legal help scheme, court forms, jury service, count course judgements
• National, International and Human Rights: voting procedure, moving overseas, messages from the Queen, access to personal records, discrimination acts, defamation of character, rape and sexual assault, personal Injuries.
• Taxes: income tax, council tax, PAYE, fringe benefits, tax rebates and tax arrears
• Consumer and Debt: Goods and services, consumer problems, insurance, credit, banks, problems with builders, problems with second hand cars

The service is run by Care First in partnership with Life and Progress and funded from member donations by the EI's Benevolent Fund.

+44 (0)300 303 4331

Need a bit more support from the EIBF?

EI Enable is the service provided by the Energy Institute's Benevolent Fund to assist members with free confidential information, advice, and support.

The EI Benevolent Fund was set up in 1969 and is sometimes able to provide financial or other support for members (or their dependents) if they are experiencing demonstrable hardship, where this will help to improve their well-being and quality of life.

Applications will be considered from:

• Institute professional members (TMI, MEI, FEI)
• Institute pre-professional members
• Former Institute members
• Dependents of Institute members and former members

A testimonial from an EI dependant below on how we have helped:

‘I have been a widowed-parent for 8 years, I was widowed when my child was 4.5 months old. The Energy Institute Benevolent Fund (EIBF) has given us both the gift of mental health. They part-fund my life-changing therapy and fully fund my child's long-term access to an amazing play therapist. These are things we absolutely could not afford without the EIBF, and despite the level of trauma we have had in our lives, were denied these by government agencies for not being a severe enough case. I don't think it has changed the ocean that is our lives, but it's like being given swimming lessons and a life raft, a sailing boat and sailing lessons: it is the difference between surviving our existence and being able to thrive. We are so grateful to the EIBF- thank you.’

If you meet our criteria for support (see below) then please do get in touch and fill out the initial application form. We may ask you to provide more information, for example details of your financial situation, so that we can establish whether and how we are able to help you, but you can use our simple form to tell us about your situation and make an initial enquiry.

Note that:

• You must be a member for more than one year for your application to be considered.
• Members are only able to make one successful application per calendar year.
• Applications must state the level of support requested.

Education Grants:

• Only available to EI members studying energy related subjects and supported by an applicant’s tutor.
• Further restrictions apply.

Welfare Grants:

• EI Members, former members or dependants (financially or closely related) may apply for assistance.
• Assistance is to support people in times of hardship (caused by unforeseen change of circumstances) and relief of poverty.

Want to apply and see if we can help you? Please download the form below and send it to: eibf@energyinst.org.

Download form

Are you able to give something back to EI members in need?

EI Enable is supported by the EI Benevolent Fund.

The fund was set up by EI members to help energy professionals and their dependents when life gets tough, and our work is funded by donations from EI members, past and present.  We need your support, at any financial level to help the fund help others.

Every little bit helps. Want to give something back? You can make a donation below or over the phone by calling the EI membership team on 0207 467 7100.

Volunteering?

Supported by donations from members and managed by a committee of volunteers, the EI Benevolent Fund helps members, ex-members and their dependents who are experiencing hardship, providing practical help where we can.

In addition to providing individual help, in September 2019 we launched a 24-hour telephone and online service to support members' wellbeing - the service can provide advice on financial, legal and lifestyle issues, as well as online ‘in the moment’ counselling support if there is a particular issue that's affecting a member’s wellbeing.

As a Committee we need to make sure that we have a wide range of skills and experience to take forward the Fund’s work hence we are always delighted to welcome new volunteers to assist the Benevolent Fund Committee with our work and spread the word more widely.

If you have some time and are interested in getting involved, please get in touch with us at: eibf@energyinst.org.

Unemployed as a result of COVID? Help with your EI membership

We are beginning to feel the impact of COVID 19 on jobs in the energy sector. To help with the current difficult environment, the EI Enable has made a special capped support fund available for members who have been seriously affected by the impact of COVID 19 - the aim is to help individuals through the pandemic by helping them retain their membership and professional registration and the benefits of EI support for 2021.

The fund comes from past and present members’ charitable donations and is limited, but we are keen to help as many people as possible. To make an application, you will need to show that you are:

• a current member
• are unemployed as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak

and confirm you are not in receipt of a new job offer.

To help us to make sure that the fund gets to members who can benefit most, we ask that you apply only if you will have genuine difficulty in paying your EI membership fees for 2021.

Download the form to apply