Government Confirms How You Will Receive Your £400 Energy Payment From October
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All households in England, Scotland and Wales are set to get a £400 grant to help with the rising cost of energy bills, and the government has now confirmed how they'll pay it out.
The price cap on bills is set to rise again in October, with millions of households in the UK facing the risk that their energy bills could rise by almost 70 percent.
of course, the money won't fully cover the rising costs that will be felt by millions as the average energy bill is set to rise to more than £3,200 per year, over double what it was at the beginning of 2022.
Sadly for those who might have wanted to take that £400 and spend in on something else, the government has confirmed that people will receive money via discounts on their energy bills.
Rather than coming all at once, it'll be delivered in a series of six monthly instalments with £66 coming in October and November and £67 a month between December and March.
How you get that £400 depends on how you pay your bills, with various methods set up for all the different ways a household might spend their money.
For people who pay their energy bills via direct debit you'll get the money automatically knocked off your bills each month.
If you pay by credit or with a payment card then the money will be added to your account as credit which goes towards your bill.
Households on a 'smart' meter will see the money automatically topping up their account, so again that's going straight to your bill.
The method for homes with a traditional payment meter which requires manually topping up with credit is a little bit different as homes with a non-smart meter will be sent vouchers they can redeem in Post Offices and other top-up points.
About 29 million households will be getting the payments, though according to The Guardian charities are worried that the poorest households might miss out on their money.
While homes paying with direct debit, credit or on a smart meter are automatically in line for the money, those with a traditional meter are getting the vouchers.
Speaking on Radio 4, Maureen Fildes of fuel poverty charity National Energy Action warned that some people might not get the vouchers, which will be delivered via text, email and post on the first week of the month.
She said many of the poorest households 'don’t have a lot of interaction with the energy supplier' and could accidentally miss out on getting the vouchers if they don't know they're getting help for their bills in the post.
Over four million households across the UK use meters to pay energy bills, and more than half of those homes are on traditional meters.
Luckily for people getting this money it'll be a grant rather than the initial loan Rishi Sunak proposed, so there's no need to pay it back.
The government is looking into ways it can extend this grant money to people living in Northern Ireland.
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