Anyone who lives in a residential home, or has a relative who does, is urged to check if their £400 energy support grant has been claimed. The Energy Bills Support Scheme Alternative Funding is available to more than 900,000 households in Great Britain who do not have a domestic electricity supply and were not eligible to receive support automatically through the Energy Bills Support Scheme (EBSS). The fund provides them with £400 to support.
People only have until Wednesday, May 31, to claim. Residents of residential homes or those living in park homes may not pay bills directly, but they are entitled to claim as they make contributions to energy bills via their paid fees or site charges.
To see if you or a relative are eligible you need to submit a short online form via the Government’s GOV.UK webpages. This page can be found by searching 'Apply for energy bill support if you do not get it automatically’ into the search bar on GOV.UK or a search engine. For those without online access, the contact centre helpline can be reached on 08081753287.
Family members, friends and carers can make an application on behalf of eligible care home residents if they are unable to complete the application themselves. These individuals must ensure that the eligible applicant’s details are provided.
To be eligible to apply for support, care home residents need to either:
- Pay for their whole care;
- Pay for part of their care;
- Have their care funded through their local authority.
Applications from, or on behalf of, care home residents should include a copy of an invoice in the name of the applicant for care home fees, or a letter on headed paper from the care home owner/management, to confirm the named applicant is partly or wholly self-funded. These documents must be dated no earlier than three-months before the application date and include the name and address of the care home.
Once customers have applied to receive support and their applications have been processed and verified, eligible customers’ details will be shared with councils, which will deliver the one-off, non-repayable support.
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. Payments will be made directly into applicant’s bank accounts in a single instalment.
