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.
Read more: Martin Lewis says 'act today' to save £1,000s in bills, from water to Wi-Fi
The Mirror reports, however, that he claims he was not eligible for the support as he lives off-grid. He explained: "[The £400 payment] would've been a great help. That money's had to come from somewhere so it's had to come out of the rest of my budgeting or my savings.
"It would've made my winter a bit easier, maybe I could have spent a bit more money on the grandkids."
Carol meanwhile, who lives on a park home site southeast of Runcorn, Cheshire, admitted that while the application process was simple, she had to apply three or four times due to repeated rejection. She added: "We got refused, I don't know how many times. I kept going, I wouldn't give up. Because I thought, 'Why should I give up?' I've worked all my life, I've paid into the system.
"[The £400] was very important because 99.9 per cent of people on these sites are all retired and a lot of them only have a basic pension, or maybe a bit of a top-up pension."
It comes after Money Saving Expert founder Martin Lewis last week shared an important update with regards to the ever-changing energy market. On Friday, his site published an article highlighting how Ofgem had requested energy suppliers publish details about all of their energy tariffs.
The move, which Martin had endlessly campaigned for, intents to make it easier for customers to compare and contrast properly on the practicality of switching to a new fixed deal. Energy suppliers across the UK did not have to share tariffs offered to existing customers prior, meaning billpayers couldn't properly compare whether it was cheaper to move.
And Martin first voiced his concerns with this to Ofgem several months ago, before following it up with a formal letter last month. The financial buff said that under current rulings, it was 'near-impossible' for consumer advice organisations to provide accurate guidance over 'opaque' deals which suppliers offer - explaining that his own site had to 'rely on crowdsourcing from consumers willing to forward bills'.
He also detailed how energy suppliers are currently bringing back 'short-lived competitive fixed deals' which 'urgently' needed to be addressed. Ofgem said it will be 'monitoring' the situation closely, to ensure the market is operating 'competitively' on price.
In its first step, it has requested that all suppliers across the board publish their entire domestic tariff catalogue.
