Citizens Advice published its response to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) on changes to the Energy Bills Support Scheme on 22 June 2022. The charity said it supported the increase in the energy bill reduction to £400 and the conversion of the rebate into a grant1.
The response set out the charity's view of the wider price context. It said the energy price cap could rise to as much as £2,880 in October and to over £2,900 in January, and that the changes to the support scheme, alongside other targeted measures, would be essential over the coming winter1.
Citizens Advice said it had raised concerns about the design of the scheme in its response to the initial consultation, warning that some customers could miss out on the payment. It named two groups in particular: customers with traditional prepayment meters, and customers with arrears on their account1.
"We support the decision by the government to increase the energy bill reduction to £400 and to turn the rebate into a grant."
The charity said it was critically important that all necessary measures were taken so that all energy customers received the grant1. The response does not set out what those measures should be, and no delivery mechanism for the £400 payment is described in the published response.
Why it matters for households
The £400 was designed to reach households through their electricity supplier, which makes the route by which it arrives central to whether a home actually receives it. For most customers on a standard credit account, a grant applied to the bill reduces the amount owed without any action. The two groups Citizens Advice singled out face a different path. Households with a traditional prepayment meter, which is not smart, cannot have a credit applied remotely in the same way, and households already in arrears may see a payment absorbed by an existing debt balance rather than reducing what they owe going forward. Both outcomes affect how much of a household's own money is left for energy, and therefore how far a home can control its own costs. The Energy Consumer Bodies page sets out which organisations represent households on these questions, and Repaying Energy Debt Through a Prepayment Meter covers how debt recovery works on those meters. Emergency Credit on a Prepayment Meter explains the fallback available when a prepayment balance runs out.
What happens next
The response is dated 22 June 2022 and addresses planned changes to the scheme. No timetable for the payments, and no confirmation of how the grant will reach prepayment meter customers or those in arrears, is given in the published response. The Closed Energy Bill Support Payments page covers the scheme as it was later delivered.