More details are slowly emerging about the £400 Energy Bills Support Scheme Alternative Funding (EBSS AF) which is due to be paid to some 900,000 households across Great Britain who do not have a direct relationship with their electricity supplier from next month. This includes people who live in park homes, houseboats, off-grid and care homes, or those paying their energy bills as part of an all-inclusive rental agreement with their landlord.
The UK Government had previously announced that the application portal for the one-off, non-repayable lump sum was expected to open this month, but Energy Minister Graham Stuart MP told MPs in the House of Commons on Wednesday that it is now expected to open on February 27, 2023.
Mr Stuart explained how he met with four local authorities involved in a pilot scheme for the portal and said that due to the complex nature of the payment it was essential to get it right first time otherwise payments to hundreds of thousands of households could be delayed.
He also explained that "robust fraud checks are necessary in an application-based system, to which there is no alternative for this group" and every step of the process must be tested
Mr Stuart told MPs: "We must make sure that we sort out all those complexities because, if we do not get it right first time, the pilot authorities say it would delay payments to consumers. My priority is to get funding to people as quickly as possible.
"Where people are not already receiving the main EBSS [Energy Bills Support Scheme], we have to look after public money by making sure their bank accounts are verified and legitimate, and that they live at the address. Those records are held across Government, local authorities and banks, so a complex case-management system is required.
"Local authorities need to be able to access the system securely, which requires multi-factor authentication, and some local authorities do not have the ability to implement that quickly. Robust fraud checks are necessary in an application-based system, to which there is no alternative for this group. Each iteration of the application process needs to be tested.
"I am confident that we will have the portal up by or on Monday 27 February. We will work with local authorities, upon which we rely, and I thank the four pilot authorities and other local authorities."
We will update this article and the Daily Record Money Saving Scotland Facebook group as soon as more details about the £400 application portal are made available.
Who can claim the £400 Energy Bills Support Scheme Alternative Funding?
Online applications are scheduled to open on February 27 for households in Scotland, England and Wales who are eligible for the £400 one-off payment to submit their details.
Payments to households that meet the eligibility criteria - including people who get their energy through a commercial contract or who are off-grid - will be made by local authorities in Great Britain.
The UK Government said this is likely to include:
- care home residents
- park home residents
- tenants in certain private and social rented homes
- homes supplied via private wires
- residents of caravans and houseboats on registered sites
- farmers living in domestic farmhouses
- off-grid households
Once households have applied to receive support and their applications have been processed and verified, eligible applicants' details will be shared with local authorities who will deliver the one-off, non-repayable support "this winter".
Applicants will only be able to submit information through the GOV.UK portal when it opens next month and should not contact their local authority directly as they will not be able to offer any more information.
The UK Government also said that the exact date that an eligible household will receive support will depend on when the application is made and when the payment can be processed by the relevant local authority.
To keep up to date with the latest developments in this ongoing story, join our Money Saving Scotland Facebook page here, or subscribe to our newsletter which goes out four times each week - sign up here.
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