£400 electricity credit to be paid in instalments - confirmed

PennineAcute

Why the heck can it not just be added to your balance and the DD readjusted each month?

MWT

PennineAcute said:

Why the heck can it not just be added to your balance and the DD readjusted each month?

Not all suppliers review the DD that often, they are only required to do it once a year...

PennineAcute

MWT said:

PennineAcute said:

Why the heck can it not just be added to your balance and the DD readjusted each month?

Not all suppliers review the DD that often, they are only required to do it once a year...

This was the Government's chance to sort that out, too!

MWT

PennineAcute said:

MWT said:

PennineAcute said:

Why the heck can it not just be added to your balance and the DD readjusted each month?

Not all suppliers review the DD that often, they are only required to do it once a year...

This was the Government's chance to sort that out, too!

Probably not the best moment to pick for that, but yes, it would be good to make a change eventually.

Mstty

Just a thought, people that have loaded up their keys in preparation for October to "beat the system" can they not get a refund on that so they have room for the vouchers or is this a case of wanting all the cake?

QrizB

Mstty said:

... is this a case of wanting all the cake?

It's going to be trade off. Keep the credit on the key and hope to continue paying 21p/kWh for electricity, or ger a refund and claim the £400 but have to pay maybe 44p/kWh.

I think that for most people the refund-and-claim option will work out better.

Taking the case of the poster with £250 on their key, that would buy 1190kWh of electricity at 21p/kWh.

If  they were to request a refund, they could claim the vouchers which would mean that £250 becomes £650.

£650 would buy 1477kWh at 44p/kWh.

Electricity would have to be 55p/kWh before it would be better for them to keep the £250 on their key.

RachelMarie123

QrizB said:

Mstty said:

... is this a case of wanting all the cake?

It's going to be trade off. Keep the credit on the key and hope to continue paying 21p/kWh for electricity, or ger a refund and claim the £400 but have to pay maybe 44p/kWh.

I think that for most people the refund-and-claim option will work out better.

Taking the case of the poster with £250 on their key, that would buy 1190kWh of electricity at 21p/kWh.

If  they were to request a refund, they could claim the vouchers which would mean that £250 becomes £650.

£650 would buy 1477kWh at 44p/kWh.

Electricity would have to be 55p/kWh before it would be better for them to keep the £250 on their key.

Thank you for these detailed calculations. My thoughts are, at current rate of use of £20 per month for electricity, this should mean my meter balance is reduced from £175 to £0 sometime in March 2023. I will load the £250 from my key to my meter. I will load the government vouchers to my key and store credit there. Believe vouchers can be reissued up to 31.03.2023. Wary of putting more than £255 on key as that's all that can be transferred to meter. Will try and use remaining government vouchers to top up gas card and hold credit on there. Assume credit held on gas cards also doesn't expire as is the case for on electricity keys. Hoping that there may be some change to non-smart prepayment issue of government grant, have seen some charities are arguing may be problematic for vulnerable people to have to claim. Best case scenario this translates to cheque payment.

superkoopauk

Certainly I think a PPM customer in your position should have the right to request a cheque but we will await the BEIS guidance

MWT

wittynamegoeshere said:

So this is not new money, but just a re-announcement of what had already been announced?  Isn't this the same £400 that was announced back in April, to cover that price rise?

My understanding is that the only new information is the details of the monthly installments.  If so then this is not related to October's price rise at all, it's basically spin.

Yes, and no...

Yes it is the original £200 loan which was later turned into a £400 grant, but it was never intended to cover the April price rise as it was always timed to be delivered from October to assist with that price ise.

pochase

wittynamegoeshere said:

So this is not new money, but just a re-announcement of what had already been announced?  Isn't this the same £400 that was announced back in April, to cover that price rise?

My understanding is that the only new information is the details of the monthly installments.  If so then this is not related to October's price rise at all, it's basically spin.

In February (not April) a £200 forced loan was announced that would be paid out in October.

End of May the £200 "loan" was increased to a £400 grant for everybody with an domestic electricity account.