£350 coming from the government, is the fixing worthless now?

Astria

There will be more clarity at the press release tonight.

fiddlesticks0

Astria said:

Andrea15 said:

OK, make me understand, is the £200 money in the bank for you to spend as you see fit or money taken out of the bill? In other words, I assumed that the bills would be discounted at source, unless you are with fix rate. Did I misunderstand it?

Yes, "You'll get an automatic £200 discount on your bills, regardless of what tariff you're on."

So it's like going into a shop, buying something that's discounted by £200, then being told that you'll need to repay that discount over the next 5 years.

GingerTim

Government by Klarna.

jimjames

emmajones1976 said:

Andrea15 said:

OK, make me understand, is the £200 money in the bank for you to spend as you see fit or money taken out of the bill? In other words, I assumed that the bills would be discounted at source, unless you are with fix rate. Did I misunderstand it?

I assume it will be a £200 credit applied to peoples accounts. Everyones accounts. Regardless of what rate you are currently on.

And also not until October if I read it right. Not much help for those struggling now!

[Deleted User]

fiddlesticks0 said:

Astria said:

Andrea15 said:

OK, make me understand, is the £200 money in the bank for you to spend as you see fit or money taken out of the bill? In other words, I assumed that the bills would be discounted at source, unless you are with fix rate. Did I misunderstand it?

Yes, "You'll get an automatic £200 discount on your bills, regardless of what tariff you're on."

So it's like going into a shop, buying something that's discounted by £200, then being told that you'll need to repay that discount over the next 5 years.

Exactly - delete discount and insert loan. The Government could have cut VAT but that would have cost them in terms of lost taxes. They could also just have increased WHD but, given the way that WHD is funded, that would have increased the cost of energy to everybody.

My guess is that the additional VAT raised on the £653 Cap increase will cover the £150 Council Tax rebate to homes in Bands A to D. The big unanswered question is what will the Government do in April 2023 re Council Tax?

emmajones1976

jimjames said:

emmajones1976 said:

Andrea15 said:

OK, make me understand, is the £200 money in the bank for you to spend as you see fit or money taken out of the bill? In other words, I assumed that the bills would be discounted at source, unless you are with fix rate. Did I misunderstand it?

I assume it will be a £200 credit applied to peoples accounts. Everyones accounts. Regardless of what rate you are currently on.

And also not until October if I read it right. Not much help for those struggling now!

Again, doubt doubt that. But it applies to everyone, so cancelling a fix for the sole reason you think you wont get this £200 is not the best move.

Astria

fiddlesticks0 said:

Astria said:

Andrea15 said:

OK, make me understand, is the £200 money in the bank for you to spend as you see fit or money taken out of the bill? In other words, I assumed that the bills would be discounted at source, unless you are with fix rate. Did I misunderstand it?

Yes, "You'll get an automatic £200 discount on your bills, regardless of what tariff you're on."

So it's like going into a shop, buying something that's discounted by £200, then being told that you'll need to repay that discount over the next 5 years.

I'd expect it will be more like this:

£200 off your bill in October.

Increase VAT on home energy to 10% the year after.

Charge the new VAT amount on the repayments.

MattMattMattUK

jimjames said:

emmajones1976 said:

Andrea15 said:

OK, make me understand, is the £200 money in the bank for you to spend as you see fit or money taken out of the bill? In other words, I assumed that the bills would be discounted at source, unless you are with fix rate. Did I misunderstand it?

I assume it will be a £200 credit applied to peoples accounts. Everyones accounts. Regardless of what rate you are currently on.

And also not until October if I read it right. Not much help for those struggling now!

Well we are now in February, the price rise does not kick in until April at which point most people will get £150, we will then be in summer with much lower usage, before we go into winter when the government throw £200 of our own money at everyone, saying it is a rebate, but which in reality is just a loan that no one wants. 

Thrugelmir

GingerTim said:

Government by Klarna.

Nothing new. The only money to spend ultimately comes from the taxpayer. 

zagfles

fiddlesticks0 said:

Astria said:

Andrea15 said:

OK, make me understand, is the £200 money in the bank for you to spend as you see fit or money taken out of the bill? In other words, I assumed that the bills would be discounted at source, unless you are with fix rate. Did I misunderstand it?

Yes, "You'll get an automatic £200 discount on your bills, regardless of what tariff you're on."

So it's like going into a shop, buying something that's discounted by £200, then being told that you'll need to repay that discount over the next 5 years.

Yes. It's obviously to help people with budgeting, ie those who can't afford the massive rise in their energy bills get a discount now and pay it back when energy prices hopefully fall. If they don't fall eg because Russia annexes Ukraine, then I guess there'll be WW3.