New government help was announced today for hundreds of thousands of families who missed out on energy bills cash this winter.
Funding will go to people who fell through the cracks of either Rishi Sunak’s £400 discount between October and March, or Liz Truss ’s £2,500-a-year cap on average household bills until 2024.
People in caravan parks or on ‘shared heat networks’ in flats will now be given a £400 one-off payment, if they weren’t eligible for the £400 discount already.
People who live off the gas grid, relying on heating oil, will get an extra £100 one-off payment on top of the £400 electricity bills discount.
And there will be legislation to ensure landlords pass on the £400 discount to tenants who pay their rent with ‘bills included’.
But the government has not announced how this will work in practice, how people will get or apply for the £400 or £100 payments, or when the law will change for landlords.
There is no guarantee the payments will be available in time for October 1.
The patchwork of help will also not perfectly match people’s individual circumstances.
It was tacked on to a wider announcement about how businesses, charities and public sector bodies will have their energy bills capped this winter.
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) said new funding will help “the 1% of households who would not otherwise have received” the £400 discount.
Some of those customers will not benefit from the £2,500-a-year cap on domestic bills either, because they get their household energy through a commercial contract.
But now commercial bills are being limited, the government has insisted the discount should be passed on to domestic customers.
Meanwhile the government has extended both the £2,500 cap and £400 discount to Northern Ireland, after the region was initially left out.
Energy suppliers in Northern Ireland will cut bills by “up to” 17p/kWh for electricity and 4.2p/kWh for gas.
But this will only happen from November, not October.
The government said it would ensure support for households in Northern Ireland ends up being equivalent to those in Great Britain, despite the month delay.
The £400 ‘Energy Bills Support Scheme’ (EBSS), worth £66 a month in October and November then £67 in December to March, was initially offered to all domestic electricity customers in Britain who pay their own bill.
But tenants who pay their rent with ‘bills included’ would not have received the £400 EBSS discount unless their landlord chose to pass it on. The government said today it would introduce a law to make sure landlords pass on the £400 discount “to tenants who pay all-inclusive bills”. There is no deadline for this legislation but it is likely to only be introduced from mid-October.
Likewise, park home residents were not due to receive the £400 EBSS discount directly because many pay a ‘pitch fee’. This wraps in many costs, including electricity, which are then paid by the site owner.
And people on ‘shared heat networks’ in flats were in a slightly different situation. They could generally get the £400 EBSS discount off electricity bills this winter - but not the overall £2,500 cap on average electric and gas bills announced this month.
That is because ‘shared heat networks’ count as a commercial, not a domestic supply, according to heat network firm Switch2.
Commercial supplies are covered by today’s announcement for businesses, meaning those savings should be passed on, officials said.
BEIS said: “Additional funding will be made available so that £400 payments will be extended to include people such as park home residents and those tenants whose landlords pay for their energy via a commercial contract.”
BEIS did not say how these £400 payments will work in practice, but added: “The government is committed to ensuring such households receive the same support.”
Separately, people who live off-grid could not benefit from either the £400 EBSS discount, or the £2,500 EPG cap on average bills.
And people who have oil central heating - so live off the gas grid but still get electricity - could benefit from the £400 discount but not the full £2,500 cap.
Today government said those who cannot benefit from the £2,500-a-year EPG will instead get “an additional payment of £100 to households across the UK”.
