National Energy Action (NEA) published its response to the BEIS consultation on the Energy Bills Support scheme on 9 May 2022, arguing that the scheme as consulted on has significant deficiencies for the poorest households1.
NEA said certain groups of households are at risk of receiving less, or no benefit from the rebate half of the scheme, and that the consultation identifies these issues but does not address them1. It also argued that recovering the levy places a disproportionate burden on the poorest households to pay for a policy they are less likely to benefit from1.
"The administration costs of the scheme will be passed through to consumers, meaning that over a 6-year period, every household's energy costs will have increased as a result of the scheme being implemented."
On design, NEA rejected simplicity as the deciding test, stating that the objective of the Government should not be to find the simplest solution, but the best solution for the poorest households that can be practically delivered1. The response does not set out revised eligibility criteria, payment levels or delivery dates, and no figures for the levy, the rebate or the administration costs are given in the published summary1.
Why it matters for households
The scheme's structure matters because a rebate delivered through energy bills reaches a household only if that household is connected to a billed supply in the way the scheme assumes. NEA's point is that some of the poorest households sit outside that assumption, so the money set aside for them may not arrive, while the levy that funds it is recovered from bill payers regardless1. For a household's energy independence, the practical effect is that the net position over the life of the scheme, not the headline rebate, is what counts: NEA states that over six years every household's energy costs will have risen because of the scheme's administration costs being passed through1. Households in Northern Ireland sit in a separate market, and support arrangements there have been handled differently from Great Britain.
What happens next
No next steps, decision dates or government response to the consultation are reported in the published response1.