Over 700,000 households across Great Britain have missed out on government energy bill support, despite being eligible to receive a £400 lumper amid the cost of living crisis, new analysis suggests. In February, the Government announced that in excess of 900,000 houses in places like park homes and houseboats could land the payment, even though they did not have an energy supplier which would apply it automatically.
But state figures show that only around 200,000 applications were made before the deadline of May 31 - with 60,000 of these since being rejected. Meanwhile, a further 13,000 applications were on hold or being validated by local councils, the BBC reports.
Data from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero shows that in the region of 125,000 had been paid by the beginning of last month, while 6,000 had been approved but not yet paid. Mark, who lives in a narrowboat and uses three and a half bags of coal each week in winter for his multi-fuel stove, previously paid around £9 per bag - but last winter, he bared witness to nearly double prices.
