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THis government has pledged £400 to help every household pay their energy bills this winter, under a scheme that runs for six months from October 1. Money is automatically credited to payers through direct debit, but is more complicated for traditional prepayment meters. Each household waits for a £66 monthly voucher in the post, which can be used to claim the money when topping up at the post office or in shops with PayPoint.
However, weeks after the scheme was launched, thousands of families have still not redeemed their vouchers, meaning £80m worth of aid is still unclaimed. Some families may not have claimed aid, but many say their vouchers simply haven’t been sent.
Here we talk to four people who have struggled to access the government scheme.
Katy, London
High energy prices have left many people with difficult choices. When the cold weather began this month, Katie (not her real name), 47, said the vouchers would have offered a “lifeline” – if they had arrived.
She lives in temporary accommodation in a one-bed flat in Southwark, London, with her 12-year-old son and sleeps on the sofa when she has a bedroom. There is no central heating so they rely on electric heaters. Delays in getting vouchers have worsened the difficult situation.
“I can’t afford to heat my son’s bedroom,” she said earlier this month, six weeks after the plan began. “Now I have mold growing on the bedroom ceiling. It is very expensive to heat his room with a portable heater and the vouchers would have been very helpful.”
She has been on the phone frequently with her energy supplier, although she struggled to wait for someone to get on the phone while working full-time. She said she was “extremely upset” by the way her supplier was treating her.
She finally received her vouchers for October and November on Tuesday, nearly two months after they were supposedly first issued.
Peter, Sunderland
When he bought his one-bed flat in Sunderland nine years ago, Peter, an antiques dealer, decided not to pay to have his prepayment meter removed in view of his low energy needs. “I don’t have a TV – I prefer to read,” he said.
However, two months into the government’s energy bill assistance scheme, it still hasn’t received the support it deserves. He shared correspondence outlining a series of complaints from his provider, British Gas, which is owned by FTSE 100 company Centrica. Six weeks after the first complaint, he still has no voucher.
“It’s very frustrating to just try and get through them and get anything concrete,” he said. “It’s sending a piece of paper from A to B, and they can’t do that.”
Peter, who is in his 50s and lives alone, said he resents being forced to pursue something that most people get automatically.
A British Gas spokeswoman said all October and November vouchers had been sent to customers and it would investigate Peter’s case.
William Harris, Northampton
William Harris, 73, of Northampton, has not received any vouchers, despite facing more than doubling energy costs in the past year. As his landlord has installed a prepayment submitter in each of the eight self-contained flats in his building, Harris does not have a direct contract with an energy supplier. The way the scheme is currently designed means that the whole building is entitled to just one set of £400 vouchers.
His landlord has told him that at the end of six months he will “see what he gets and share [the £400] Accordingly “in eight families, that means he will receive a fraction of what most families in the UK would receive.
Harris has seen his studio flat’s electricity bill rise from £20 a month last November to £50 every three weeks and is being hit hard by the price hike. “Since I turned [the heating on] In mid-October, it’s really eating,” he says. “I have a very serious heart condition and I can’t afford to get sick – it’s going to cause me a lot of problems. I’m recovering from major heart surgery that took me out last year. He was hospitalized for three months.
“I have done as little as I can. I don’t use the oven at all right now, I’m buying microwave meals because it’s cheaper to do it that way. I wear extra clothes to avoid turning on the heating.”
Harris said he had written to his MP, Citizens Advice and his local authority, but no one could give him a concrete answer. “I have no idea how the vouchers will reach people in my position. It is very disappointing. I understand why energy prices are going up, I have a problem with how the scheme is managed amongst HMOs. [house in multiple occupation] Tenants.”
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