Citizens Advice published its response to the proposed methodology for the Electricity Bill Discount Scheme cost allowance on 9 July 20261. The charity said it opposed adding further costs to electricity bills and set out an alternative route for funding government schemes1.
Its general position, as stated in the response, is that "efforts should be made to reduce the costs that are added to bills, not increase them"1. It pointed to what it described as a viable alternative through energy bill levy reform, under which government schemes would be progressively funded via general taxation1.
Where levies are applied to electricity bills, Citizens Advice said adding costs onto unit rates specifically should be avoided1. It argued that this approach "creates a penalty for vulnerable high-usage consumers and runs counter to the government's attempts to encourage the electrification of demand"1.
"Our general position is that efforts should be made to reduce the costs that are added to bills, not increase them."
The response does not set out figures for the size of the cost allowance, the number of households affected or the revenue that general taxation funding would raise. Those details have not been reported in the published response1. The consultation itself was run by government and Ofgem, and the response is addressed to that process; the outcome of the consultation has not been reported1.
Why it matters for households
Levies added to unit rates are charged per kilowatt hour, so a household using more electricity pays more of the scheme's cost than a household using less, regardless of income. That is the mechanism Citizens Advice objects to, on the grounds that high electricity use is not the same as high ability to pay1.
For a home weighing up electrification, such as switching heating or transport to run on electricity, the unit rate is the price that determines whether the switch reduces running costs. Costs loaded onto that rate work against the case for using more electricity at home, which is the tension Citizens Advice identifies in its response1.
The proposal sits within the wider set of policy costs and levies that make up the non-energy portion of a bill, and the consultation is one step in the process by which such rules are proposed, decided and changed1.
What happens next
No next steps, timetable or decision date are given in the published response1.