So the discretionary fund is.....**drumroll**.......£100 measly quid!?

drsquirrel

Getting_greyer said:

FGS here we go: OPEC to cut output by 2 million barrels a day.  Estimated real terms cut to production of 1%.  

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63149044.amp 

Fixed link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63149044

KathysBoy

The Government has announced that the £100 Alternative Fuel Payment (LPG, Oil etc) will be paid through the Energy Bills Support Scheme i.e electricity bills. The payment date has not been announced yet.

kassy64

KathysBoy said:

The Government has announced that the £100 Alternative Fuel Payment (LPG, Oil etc) will be paid through the Energy Bills Support Scheme i.e electricity bills. The payment date has not been announced yet.

At least something has been announced. Will be interested to know how they will know a household is entitled to this through electricity account. Some houses only use electric (my daughters place has electric boiler) so can’t assume you are entitled just because you do not have a dual fuel a/c. We shall wait and see I suppose!

NedS

kassy64 said:

KathysBoy said:

The Government has announced that the £100 Alternative Fuel Payment (LPG, Oil etc) will be paid through the Energy Bills Support Scheme i.e electricity bills. The payment date has not been announced yet.

At least something has been announced. Will be interested to know how they will know a household is entitled to this through electricity account. Some houses only use electric (my daughters place has electric boiler) so can’t assume you are entitled just because you do not have a dual fuel a/c. We shall wait and see I suppose!

My guess is that if you have a single fuel account (only electricity, no gas), they will assume you don't have gas and are therefore eligible? How common would it be for people to have separate Gas and Electricity suppliers, or is pretty much everyone dual fuel these days?

kassy64

NedS said:

kassy64 said:

KathysBoy said:

The Government has announced that the £100 Alternative Fuel Payment (LPG, Oil etc) will be paid through the Energy Bills Support Scheme i.e electricity bills. The payment date has not been announced yet.

At least something has been announced. Will be interested to know how they will know a household is entitled to this through electricity account. Some houses only use electric (my daughters place has electric boiler) so can’t assume you are entitled just because you do not have a dual fuel a/c. We shall wait and see I suppose!

My guess is that if you have a single fuel account (only electricity, no gas), they will assume you don't have gas and are therefore eligible? How common would it be for people to have separate Gas and Electricity suppliers, or is pretty much everyone dual fuel these days?

That definitely won’t work. Loads of the new builds particularly flats are now electric only (Google EHC boilers for example very popular now). 

fatbelly

This seems to be the document.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/energy-prices-bill-how-households-and-businesses-will-be-supported/how-households-and-businesses-will-be-supported-by-the-energy-prices-bill

However, despite the title (How households and businesses will be supported by the Energy Prices Bill) there is still no indication How households and businesses will be supported by the Alternative Fuel Payments

mmmmikey

Still lots of questions about eligibility - for example will households that use wood burners or coal fires as a major part of their heating get the funding? And what if you use bottled gas cabinet heaters? I'm struggling to see how this is going to work unless it's as simple as if you don't have mains gas you get the payment. Oh, and what if you live in an area where mains gas is available but there's no connection to your house. This has the potential to be an administrative nightmare, but lets wait and see....

maisie_cat

Why make this so complicated? it's as though these senior public servants cannot make a decision. Having a separate scheme to pay £100 risks costing 3x that in admin.
Why not simply scrap the lot and give £100-£1400 or whatever to every household via the electricity account.
Pensioner & disabled households would still get extra cash so that covers additional needs.
Larger households mostly get extra money for children and adult larger households will have extra incomes.
People who run swimming pools, gaming rooms, "herb" farms will simply have to pay a higher amount as none of those things are essential.

Spoonie_Turtle

maisie_cat said:

Why make this so complicated? it's as though these senior public servants cannot make a decision. Having a separate scheme to pay £100 risks costing 3x that in admin.
Why not simply scrap the lot and give £100-£1400 or whatever to every household via the electricity account.
Pensioner & disabled households would still get extra cash so that covers additional needs.
Larger households mostly get extra money for children and adult larger households will have extra incomes.
People who run swimming pools, gaming rooms, "herb" farms will simply have to pay a higher amount as none of those things are essential.

This assumes that every disabled person who needs help is able to claim the qualifying benefit.  It's not that simple.  Scope says there are 14 million disabled people in the UK.  Only 6 million claim a disability benefit - the threshold for claiming is punishingly high, and the system is ridiculously inaccessible so that even if you do meet the criteria you have to actually be well enough to be able to claim and often fight (or have access to someone who understands the system and can fight for you).

[This is why talk of tiered tariffs bandied about with the comment 'with exceptions for medical needs/disability' is so flippant and shows absolutely no understanding of the reality of the medical or benefit systems.]

You're also forgetting households that don't have their own domestic electricity account, approximately 1%.  While they wait for the promised "equivalent support" at least those claiming relevant benefits are still able to access the other support for which they qualify.

shinytop

It's going to have to be really, really simple.  Just give everyone without a mains gas account £100.  Anything else will cost too much and invite fraud.  So people with electric heating get a bit extra; so what?  They're probably paying more to heat their homes anyway.