£400 electricity credit to be paid in instalments - confirmed

GingerTim

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/energy-bills-support-scheme-explainer

As long suspected on this forum, it's been confirmed that the £400 electricity bill credit will be paid in instalments: £66 for the first two months, £67 for the following four. 

Prepayment customers with smart meters will have it automatically applied to their balance, those with old meters will receive a voucher.

fatbelly

Customers paying by direct debit, either monthly or quarterly, will see an automatic deduction off those bills, says the BBC

The official press release says

• Direct Debit customers will receive the Energy Bill discount automatically as a deduction to the monthly Direct Debit amount collected, or as a refund to the customer’s bank account following Direct Debit collection during each month of delivery

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/400-energy-bills-discount-to-support-households-this-winter

Effician

fatbelly said:

Customers paying by direct debit, either monthly or quarterly, will see an automatic deduction off those bills, says the BBC

This could be interesting because as a low user & expecting to be on variable dd by October the £66 credit will be almost £20 above my usage,  does this mean i get my £46 bill paid & a £20 credit to my bank account.

Sea_Shell

fatbelly said:

Customers paying by direct debit, either monthly or quarterly, will see an automatic deduction off those bills, says the BBC

The official press release says

• Direct Debit customers will receive the Energy Bill discount automatically as a deduction to the monthly Direct Debit amount collected, or as a refund to the customer’s bank account following Direct Debit collection during each month of delivery

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/400-energy-bills-discount-to-support-households-this-winter

So, is that to be read as...

If you pay by "fixed" DD, you'll receive a direct rebate back into your bank account, sometime after your usual payment date, but if you're on "variable" DD (monthly bill, payed in full), they'll deduct it from the amount owed and only collect the balance? 

Or will it just sit as a credit on your (electricity) account?


Just wondering how it affects Santander 1/2/3 cashback?    

Mstty

Effician said:

fatbelly said:

Customers paying by direct debit, either monthly or quarterly, will see an automatic deduction off those bills, says the BBC

This could be interesting because as a low user & expecting to be on variable dd by October the £66 credit will be almost £20 above my usage,  does this mean i get my £46 bill paid & a £20 credit to my bank account.

As a variable DD customer I suggest the £20 rolls over as credit til April 2023 where you will have £120 credit waiting. 

Effectively you won't pay a bill til May/June 2023.
 

Robin9

Effician said:

fatbelly said:

Customers paying by direct debit, either monthly or quarterly, will see an automatic deduction off those bills, says the BBC

This could be interesting because as a low user & expecting to be on variable dd by October the £66 credit will be almost £20 above my usage,  does this mean i get my £46 bill paid & a £20 credit to my bank account.

No - it will all be credit to your electricity account and will stay there waiting for you to use the energy.  In theory you may be able to ask for it to be refunded.

The way things are going that £20 credit of yours will rapidly be swallowed up.

I also will be in credit (I have a fix till Sept 24) and will reduce my DD as much as I can and increase my gas accordingly.

GingerTim

Mstty said:

Effician said:

fatbelly said:

Customers paying by direct debit, either monthly or quarterly, will see an automatic deduction off those bills, says the BBC

This could be interesting because as a low user & expecting to be on variable dd by October the £66 credit will be almost £20 above my usage,  does this mean i get my £46 bill paid & a £20 credit to my bank account.

As a variable DD customer I suggest the £20 rolls over as credit til April 2023 where you will have £120 credit waiting. 

Effectively you won't pay a bill til May/June 2023.
 

The £400 exceeds my annual electricity usage, and as I'm on a long-term fix I won't actually pay anything for twelve months. The local food bank will be getting the equivalent of my EDF direct debit.

Effician

Mstty said:

Effician said:

fatbelly said:

Customers paying by direct debit, either monthly or quarterly, will see an automatic deduction off those bills, says the BBC

This could be interesting because as a low user & expecting to be on variable dd by October the £66 credit will be almost £20 above my usage,  does this mean i get my £46 bill paid & a £20 credit to my bank account.

As a variable DD customer I suggest the £20 rolls over as credit til April 2023 where you will have £120 credit waiting. 

Effectively you won't pay a bill til May/June 2023.
 

That's what i was hoping for & i guess over the coming days a lot of the questions around details for various scenarios will be explained.

Sea_Shell

Reading that again, if the "discount" isn't deducted from ones account balance, but physically refunded as cash, isn't that open to being spent on something else!!!   

Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me....unless I'm reading it wrong.

Mstty

Sea_Shell said:

Reading that again, if the "discount" isn't deducted from ones account balance, but physically refunded as cash, isn't that open to being spent on something else!!!   

Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me....unless I'm reading it wrong.

Hopefully, it all goes into the economy and perhaps it might even go into a UK residents company rather than this money leaving the countr

Whether it is spent on energy, food, fuel or a meal and drinks. A treat?

I believe these were cost of living payments so I'm not bothered what people spend it on.

JoeCrystal

Well, British Gas website page regarding the scheme says this: Considering I paid £40 per month for electricity at the moment, I would be very interested to see what my supplier actually does!

• If you pay by Direct Debit

  Your grant will be taken off your monthly Direct Debit automatically. So you pay £66/£67 less each month. Or your supplier may send the grant money straight to your bank each month – like a refund – once your Direct Debit has gone through.
   

• If you pay by quarterly cash or cheque

  Your grant will be applied to your account balance each month.
   

• If you have a smart prepayment meter

  Your grant will be applied to your meter each month, just like a top-up.
   

• If you have a traditional prepayment meter

  You’ll get your grant via vouchers, which you can then cash in when you top-up in your normal way. Once the grant has been received by you in full, your meter payments will revert back to normal.