Breadline Scots have blasted the UK government after it was revealed that up to 90,000 families have been unable to take advantage of government help on pre-payment meters.
Latest figures show that 32 per cent of all 867.000 vouchers issued in Scotland for the last three months of 2022 were not redeemed. Inverclyde MP Ronnie Cowan believes this is largely down to a chaotic system failing to send vouchers to the right people.
Cowan spoke out after the government’s business and energy department showed that 274,000 issued vouchers were not redeemed. That number, equating to three monthly vouchers for 90,000 families, is believed to include many vouchers that simply got lost in the post or in unopened email due to old personal information being used.
One single mum told the Record that her vouchers had arrived in the name of a previous tenant at her Glasgow home, despite her living there for three years.
The mum, in her 40s, said: “I was given one voucher in my name and that was fine then, for some reason, vouchers came in with the name of the previous tenant.
“I had to send a load of emails to get it sorted and they finally got the names switched and sent emailed me vouchers I can use.
“It was a complete disaster and caused a lot of stress.”
Another Scot, Caroline Cawley was unable to use her pre-payment voucher.
The unemployed 39-year-old, from Edinburgh, said that when she tried to present her a voucher at a local shop for a credit top-up, the system would not accept it.
She said: “I don’t know if my next voucher will be rejected because I have been going round in circles.”
Caroline said she was finally able to swap a voucher for cash, which she then used for a top-up.
She said: “I guess I will try the same shop and hope I can get the voucher to work.
“But I can easily imagine how there must be thousands of people out there who are not getting the help they were entitled to.”
MP Cowan said: “In my own Inverclyde constituency thousands of vouchers are unclaimed.
“And in Scotland as a whole the figures suggest that around 270,000 vouchers have not been redeemed.
“That could mean that around 90,000 of the most needy households have not redeemed any of the three vital vouchers they were sent over this period, leaving them facing severe hardship.
“I cannot believe that people on low incomes are receiving these vouchers and are just not bothering to redeem them.”
Cowan, who has raised the issue in Parliament, added: “In Inverclyde we have seen cases of vouchers being sent to customers on old email addresses that they have not accessed in years, vouchers being sent to the wrong email address, pensioners or vulnerable people not knowing how to access emails, vouchers being sent through the post and not arriving at the correct address, or vouchers being sent to landlords instead of tenants.
“There are far too many of the most vulnerable people on pre-payment meters, and in many cases this government help is not getting through.”
It was revealed recently that planned changes to pre-payment meter charges will save customers less than £1 a week.
The £400 energy bill rebate is supplied in £67 monthly vouchers. The vouchers expire after 90 days.
Mr Cowan added: “It’s completely unjust that thousands of Scotland’s poorest households could be missing out on support. The energy companies know who these customers are, and they have the resources to ensure people get the vouchers they are entitled to."
Ruth Boyle of the Poverty Alliance said: “Alongside Energy Action Scotland, we worked with the previous First Minister to convene a summit of campaigners, politicians, and energy companies.
"It’s clear that this should happen again – so that energy companies turn compassion into concrete action to get this support to those that are entitled to it.”
A UK Government spokesperson said: "We know it has been a difficult winter for families, which is why the government has been paying around half of the typical household’s energy bill this winter.
"97% of prepayment meter vouchers have been issued and suppliers must make at least three attempts to reach the customer if a voucher is not redeemed.
"Households will have until June to use their vouchers and should contact their supplier if any are yet to be received."
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