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

scrabble123

So roughly 250,000 new homes a year.
Each paying £40 for a loan they never had.
My rough maths over 5 years is £150,000,000 profit on the repayments....have I missed something here?

What if the government decided it was £500 for water bills next year and pay back £50 over 10 years...that's a tidy half a billion pounds in profit!

If this is allowed and legal where does it stop, what are the limits, we are ripping off our kids!

EssexHebridean

Coffeekup said:

PennineAcute said:

All these people who are so against this £200 have yet to come up with a more realistic alternative.  Some people can cause an arguement in an empty room.

I'd take the £200 not in cash in gold weight... Otherwise I'm not Interested in the "loan" either.

Tell you what, as a solution, why not when you get the £200 applied to your account simply make a cash donation of the same amount to your local food-bank. That way you can be confident that the money you don’t actually need will go to help someone who actually is struggling. 

JIL

EssexHebridean said:

Coffeekup said:

PennineAcute said:

All these people who are so against this £200 have yet to come up with a more realistic alternative.  Some people can cause an arguement in an empty room.

I'd take the £200 not in cash in gold weight... Otherwise I'm not Interested in the "loan" either.

Tell you what, as a solution, why not when you get the £200 applied to your account simply make a cash donation of the same amount to your local food-bank. That way you can be confident that the money you don’t actually need will go to help someone who actually is struggling. 

How do you know this poster doesn't already contribute to a food bank?

However, if costs are to go up, then put them up. Stop robbing Peter to pay Paul. 

This is just another poorly thought out scheme. So many what if scenarios.

The people who need this are most likely to be on benefits, just a few months ago this same government removed the £20 UC top up and here we are loaning money on fuel bills, reducing council tax and raising NI contributions. Whilst in the background writing off billions of pounds worth of PPE.

It's an absolute disgrace.

AnnoyedEnergyUser

EssexHebridean said:

The irony of this entire thread is that it appears that almost everyone posting on it ranting about the £200 has the financial privilege to be able to cope with the increase to bills without it. Yes, it might not be a quite as warm as you’d really like. Sure, you might have to think about a bit of batch cooking. And absolutely, perhaps that shower timer you bought a few years ago “to save water because the eNviROnmEnT…” might make a reappearance. Chances are though you will not be having to make decisions about eating or heating - literally a choice between which of the two you do. And before people get up in arms and tell me they don’t have “financial privilege”  because “they’ve worked for every penny” - educate yourself and understand what financial privilege really is. I’ve worked for every penny too - but I can also acknowledge that through a combination of the jobs a I’ve had, having been given the opportunity to learn to cook, to manage money, and to clear debts, I’m unlikely to ever be back in the position I was in my late 20s where putting food on the table was a struggle. There are still all too many people for whom that struggle is real every single day - we see it all too often on DFW.  While “borrowing your way out of debt” isn’t usually a plan, there are a very few scenarios where that can be the only option - and indeed to not have to do that is again a reflection of privilege whether we like it or not. 

There are so many of us who ideally wouldn’t want this levy - or the increase costs that will follow down the line for it - but right now, the best thing we can do IMO is to accept that the system isn’t perfect, but right now this sticking plaster over the wound is the best that can be done, and come next winter it will mean there are some families being able to turn on their heating AND eat a hot meal rather than one or the other. 

If you’ve not already done it, watch or read the transcript of the video Martin has put out today as it does explain things very well.  And as others have already suggested - if you don’t need it and don’t want it then the easiest way of preventing it having impact on you is to leave the £200 credit accounted for and untouched, and then let it deplete naturally over the following 5 years.  

The whole crux of people like ML is supposedly to teach people don't go trying to find the best saving rates whilst you have a mortgage. 

All of what you say I can relate to unlike Rishi Sunak who has a coffee mug worth more than the £200 he is conning folks with and being married into the richest families in the world and one profiting from all this how can we expect him to do anything other than this hustle.

In any other situation folks would have been screaming don't do it, yet folks seem to want to defend the seemingly indefensible. 

If someone is struggling now why would not paying the full bill now and adding it to five future bills which will also have the increases plus what they have put off. At some point we have to pay, and rather than saying we can't do this or we cant do that why not put all our energies into smart use of energy and ensuring we can create energy solutions for the future, insteadof just carrying on using energy as we do now and just building debt up for the future.

RJames

Seems there has been much not thought about and many hurdles that will change how this unfolds: 

- deaths after the £200 is given to lessen impact but before repayment.  
- those not paying energy bills until the levy is due for repayment in 5 years. 
- energy home reports as to the energy consumption  - high when the the loan is given, then low when due to pay back; will it affect property sales? 

EssexHebridean

JIL said:

EssexHebridean said:

Coffeekup said:

PennineAcute said:

All these people who are so against this £200 have yet to come up with a more realistic alternative.  Some people can cause an arguement in an empty room.

I'd take the £200 not in cash in gold weight... Otherwise I'm not Interested in the "loan" either.

Tell you what, as a solution, why not when you get the £200 applied to your account simply make a cash donation of the same amount to your local food-bank. That way you can be confident that the money you don’t actually need will go to help someone who actually is struggling. 

How do you know this poster doesn't already contribute to a food bank?

However, if costs are to go up, then put them up. Stop robbing Peter to pay Paul. 

This is just another poorly thought out scheme. So many what if scenarios.

The people who need this are most likely to be on benefits, just a few months ago this same government removed the £20 UC top up and here we are loaning money on fuel bills, reducing council tax and raising NI contributions. Whilst in the background writing off billions of pounds worth of PPE.

It's an absolute disgrace.

What if they do? Charity donations aren't capped out at a one-time deal!  

QrizB

Welcome to the forum.

RJames said:

Seems there has been much not thought about and many hurdles that will change how this unfolds: 

- deaths after the £200 is given to lessen impact but before repayment.  
- those not paying energy bills until the levy is due for repayment in 5 years. 
- energy home reports as to the energy consumption  - high when the the loan is given, then low when due to pay back; will it affect property sales? 

I get the feeling that you didn't read the previous ten pages of this thread.

• If you die, you stop paying utility bills and don't have to pay the extra 11p/day.
• If you start an electricity account after the £200 payment is made, you will still have to pay the 11p/day.
• EPCs have nothing to do with this. The £200 payment does not affect the energy use of your property.
  

EssexHebridean

QrizB said:

Welcome to the forum.

RJames said:

Seems there has been much not thought about and many hurdles that will change how this unfolds: 

- deaths after the £200 is given to lessen impact but before repayment.  
- those not paying energy bills until the levy is due for repayment in 5 years. 
- energy home reports as to the energy consumption  - high when the the loan is given, then low when due to pay back; will it affect property sales? 

I get the feeling that you didn't read the previous ten pages of this thread.

• If you die, you stop paying utility bills and don't have to pay the extra 11p/day.
• If you start an electricity account after the £200 payment is made, you will still have to pay the 11p/day.
• EPCs have nothing to do with this. The £200 payment does not affect the energy use of your property.
  

And - importantly - this will not be a cost to your estate beyond any normal SC's that continue until either the property is sold, or the bills are transferred into another person's name - for example the person who inherits the property.

gt94sss2

scrabble123 said:

So roughly 250,000 new homes a year.
Each paying £40 for a loan they never had.
My rough maths over 5 years is £150,000,000 profit on the repayments....have I missed something here?

The interest the government will have to pay on the borrowing to fund the scheme..

Astria

gt94sss2 said:

scrabble123 said:

So roughly 250,000 new homes a year.
Each paying £40 for a loan they never had.
My rough maths over 5 years is £150,000,000 profit on the repayments....have I missed something here?

The interest the government will have to pay on the borrowing to fund the scheme..

Currently sitting at about 0.7%, and they only borrowed about £13 billion ? compare that the £200+ billion we borrowed for the pandemic so far. They need to start clawing some of it back somehow.