How can I opt out of the £200 energy scheme?

AnnoyedEnergyUser

Knowing how firms muck over time, part of me simply doesn't want any part of the scheme, with all of my bills I like to get them out of the way, I know folks may say it is like 0% finance or 0% credit card balance transfer.. but I am not comfortable being forced to take out this £200 loan for it to be paid back at £40 a year in the future. Unlike the government I don't want to defer debt to the future and knowing how bad energy companies are when it comes to bills who knows how this will work in the future. Will it be like a rogue lender who will end up asking for more and more. I would rather deal with what is coming now. I doubt very much like all the covid fraud and bail outs we will be given £200 for it then to be written off although as Shell announced today they easily could.
As for the £150 council tax rebate that will be merely keeping our council tax bill at last years levels as we were expecting an increase of at least a £100.

GingerTim

You can't, it's a universal measure applied to every bill, not to an individual.

Staffordian11

My guess is that there will be no individual tracking of this amount.  I think it will simply be lost among the many constituents of an energy bill in the same way the green levies etc. are, so there will be no opting in or out of the £200 or it's repayment.

I'd be interested in others thoughts on this though...

AnnoyedEnergyUser

Is this legal? Surely they can't force someone to take out a loan which they don't want? I would rather deal with the prices as they are. If someone can not afford bills now how does it make any sense to then have those increased costs in the future plus another £40 a year. I am like many unsure of my work and unsure of income, I can currently afford all my bills and save, so have cut all my costs, paid off mortgage, have no long term debt of any sort and save in case I have no job at all, I simply don't want to create something in which I am forced to take an interest free loan out to then repay as who knows what the future holds. Surely there should be an opt out?

Reed_Richards

Go off grid?

PennineAcute

How are they going to collect this though?  It cannot be added to the elec rates, otherwise the chances of paying exactly £40 pa is near zero. 

GingerTim

It's not like a normal loan, think of it as spreading the cost across everyone's bills over the next five years. There is no escaping it unless you go off grid.

AnnoyedEnergyUser

PennineAcute said:

How are they going to collect this though?  It cannot be added to the elec rates, otherwise the chances of paying exactly £40 pa is near zero. 

You can also imagine the energy companies complaining of the administration costs needed to add £40 per year to a bill. So either the customers will get higher charges to administer this or we will pay this back through taxes as the government.

QrizB

From what's been said, my best guess based on this Treasury factsheet and pending any more specific info:

• Every domestic electricity account will be credited with £200 in October this year;
• Every domestic electricity account will see an ~11p/day increase to the standing charge from some-time-in-2023.
  

GingerTim

PennineAcute said:

How are they going to collect this though?  It cannot be added to the elec rates, otherwise the chances of paying exactly £40 pa is near zero. 

Most likely on the standing charges.

QrizB

AnnoyedEnergyUser said:

PennineAcute said:

How are they going to collect this though?  It cannot be added to the elec rates, otherwise the chances of paying exactly £40 pa is near zero. 

You can also imagine the energy companies complaining of the administration costs needed to add £40 per year to a bill. So either the customers will get higher charges to administer this or we will pay this back through taxes as the government.

Ofgem will roll it into the policy costs and will reclaim it for the government. No extra admin required outside of Ofgem's beancounters.