Energy Bills Support Scheme Alternative Funding
The £400 Energy Bills Support Scheme Alternative Funding will provide much-needed help for those households who do not have a domestic energy supply and have not received support through the main Energy Bills Support Scheme.
This includes residents of park homes and care homes, as well as other households who either receive their energy through commercial intermediaries or are off the energy grid entirely. We will be publishing further detail about eligibility shortly.
As these households cannot be identified by their energy supply, the scheme cannot be delivered in the same way.
The government has worked through a number of alternative delivery options, including procuring an external delivery partner and administering the scheme centrally. We have since concluded that the best way to deliver the scheme is through Local Authorities in Great Britain, who are best placed to process applications and carry out verification checks. As there is no single register of eligible households, payment is still a complicated matter. We are working flat out to ensure that the right money gets to the right people at the right time.
This includes making the process as simple as possible for applicants. An eligible household will be able to fill out a short form on GOV.UK with a few simple details, including their name and address. Much of this data will be verified up-front to reduce burdens on Local Authorities, who will then verify the address and administer the payment.
We are currently finishing and testing the application model, including verification and antifraud measures, to ensure that it functions as intended before it can go live. Whilst we understand that speed is of the essence, we must do all we can to prevent errors that could result either in households not receiving the support they need, or in a loss of public money.
The scheme will open for applications in Great Britain in January 2023, and we are committed to delivering the payment to households this winter. 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. It will be extremely important to make clear to potential applicants how they can apply for the Alternative Funding. Public messaging will need to provide clear guidance on eligibility criteria and key groups likely to be in scope, on timings and the application window, as well as information on how to apply via GOV.UK. Alongside general communications to the public, it will be important to work with core stakeholders to reach specific groups, bearing in mind that potential applicants may be disproportionately elderly and more vulnerable compared with those covered by the main Energy Bills Support Scheme.
