02 Nov 2022
Customers with prepayment meters are being urged to redeem vouchers worth £400 to help with rising energy bills.
Households should have begun to receive the first £400 instalment of the government's Energy Bill Support Scheme from 1 October. The Post Office, which processes the vouchers, said just 60% of eligible households had redeemed the credits so far. The credits are valid for 90 days.
Payment company PayPoint, which also processes the vouchers, said it expected to process 800,000 vouchers in October, worth a total of £52.8 million. However, the business said only £27 million had been redeemed to date.
Announced in May, the Energy Bill Support Scheme applies across England, Scotland and Wales. Under the scheme, energy bills will be cut by £400. The cut will be applied over a total of six months. The months of October and November see reductions of £66, and reductions of £67 every month will apply between December 2022 and March 2023.
In a statement, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said: 'The government has worked quickly to deliver the Energy Bill Support Scheme, helping a broad range of households struggling with energy bills this winter, including £1,200 direct payments being made to vulnerable households.
'We encourage customers to have their credit applied to their meter as soon as possible so that they can benefit from the scheme, which comes on top of the energy price guarantee which is saving the typical household about £700 this winter.'