Energy £400 rebate

nallursiva

My mother 92, lives in a warden controlled church owned flat. She pays the electricity charges monthly to EDF via direct debit. The gas is supplied and charged as part of rent by the council. Will she get the £400 rebate from the government?
 Thanks

MattMattMattUK

nallursiva said:

My mother 92, lives in a warden controlled church owned flat. She pays the electricity charges monthly to EDF via direct debit. The gas is supplied and charged as part of rent by the council. Will she get the £400 rebate from the government?
 Thanks

As long as she has a domestic electricity account, then yes.

BoatladyUK

Found this this morning not sure how to apply for it though, 

If you live in a park home, houseboat or off the grid

The government has confirmed that further funding will be available to provide equivalent support of £400 for energy bills for the 1% of households who are not eligible for the discount.

This includes households without a domestic electricity meter and a direct relationship with an electricity supplier, for example if you live in a park home, houseboat or you live off the grid.

MWT

BoatladyUK said:

Found this this morning not sure how to apply for it though, 

If you live in a park home, houseboat or off the grid

The government has confirmed that further funding will be available to provide equivalent support of £400 for energy bills for the 1% of households who are not eligible for the discount.

This includes households without a domestic electricity meter and a direct relationship with an electricity supplier, for example if you live in a park home, houseboat or you live off the grid.

It would be better not to post the same question in multiple threads.

The answer remains the same, there are no details yet regarding how this support will be delivered.

Astria

nallursiva said:

My mother 92, lives in a warden controlled church owned flat. She pays the electricity charges monthly to EDF via direct debit. The gas is supplied and charged as part of rent by the council. Will she get the £400 rebate from the government?
 Thanks

Then she you should get the £400 credit to her EDF energy account, most likely by reducing her DD so she pays less.

The gas doesn't matter as not everyone has gas.

HeleninSussex

In case other park home owners are not aware, the government has let us down yet again… Having said that the online application process for claiming the £400 would be available by the end of January, they have now postponed this again, until the end of February.

For those who want to take action about this, please visit the websites for PHOJC (Park Home Owners Justice Campaign) and the new organisation PHOLRA (Park Home Owners Law Reform Association) set up by Sonia McColl OBE. Park home owners are at last uniting to get some justice over matters like this one – and others, such as exorbitant pitch fee increases.

MattMattMattUK

HeleninSussex said:

In case other park home owners are not aware, the government has let us down yet again… Having said that the online application process for claiming the £400 would be available by the end of January, they have now postponed this again, until the end of February.

The original timeline was the rather vague "in the new year", I do not believe that January was mentioned, they have now announced that it will be at the end of February. I do not see how this is letting people down, they are still getting the free money (provided they are on a residential site).

HeleninSussex said:

For those who want to take action about this, please visit the websites for PHOJC (Park Home Owners Justice Campaign) and the new organisation PHOLRA (Park Home Owners Law Reform Association) set up by Sonia McColl OBE. Park home owners are at last uniting to get some justice over matters like this one – and others, such as exorbitant pitch fee increases.

Take "action" is going to involve nothing more than signing a pointless online petition, the government are not going to move the scheme forward when it is not ready to deploy just because a few thousand people sign an online petition, or even if they have a tantrum in the street outside parliament, the scheme has taken this long because it is complex and needs to be done properly, the scheme to those with normal energy suppliers was much easier as there was a way to identify those households and even then it has cost the energy suppliers tens of millions to implement. 

Pitch fees are a commercial agreement between two parties, I cannot see this government regulating them any more than it would regulate rents, increases in petrol prices, the cost of broadband etc.

devoncop22

For the information of MattMattMattUK, as it happens pitch fee increases are already regulated by the government so your assumption is incorrect.

Pitch fees under the Mobile Homes Act of 2015 can only increase by RPI each year, which is a much better deal than many private tenants get, albeit there is an ongoing campaign to change this to a CPI increase in line with pensions.

As far as the 400 pound energy payment is concerned I agree with you though. As long as residents get the payment in the next couple of months it's no big deal. Due to the complexities involved in ensuring the right people get the payment a delay is hardly a surprise.

Full disclosure...I live in a residential park home.

MattMattMattUK

devoncop22 said:

For the information of MattMattMattUK, as it happens pitch fee increases are already regulated by the government so your assumption is incorrect.

Pitch fees under the Mobile Homes Act of 2015 can only increase by RPI each year, which is a much better deal than many private tenants get, albeit there is an ongoing campaign to change this to a CPI increase in line with pensions.

I stand corrected then, but it does seem like being difficult for difficult's sake to demand that they change the inflation type used because it links to something else. Surely one enters a commercial agreement having read the terms, to them demand that the government retrospectively legislate to reduce the contractually agreed rises seems somewhat childish.

devoncop22 said:

As far as the 400 pound energy payment is concerned I agree with you though. As long as residents get the payment in the next couple of months it's no big deal. Due to the complexities involved in ensuring the right people get the payment a delay is hardly a surprise.

I find it amazing that so many people think throwing money around with few checks is the answer, it is why there was so much fraud on SEISS, CJRS, BBLs, PPE purchases etc. and whilst it does feel a little like after the horse has bolted doing it for this it is better that the government take more care with throwing away taxpayers money going forward than they have done in the past. 

devoncop22 said:

Full disclosure...I live in a residential park home.

That is good, there have been quite a few on here who live year round in non-residential sites kicking off that they will not be eligible and they are going to be in a lot of trouble if they try and claim based on a non-residential status, no Council Tax etc. 

HeleninSussex

Thank you MattMattMattUK for your reply. Just to clarify a couple of things:

I can confirm that “the end of January” was in fact given as the proposed date, after a couple of previous postponements. For those in the greatest need, receiving this money at the end of February will be too late to be of much help.

Secondly, there is no “online petition” that I’m aware of. Anyone who is concerned enough to take action can do so by contacting our local MP and/or local newspaper, to respectfully raise awareness of these delays. For myself, things are not desperate – but some older park home residents are suffering severe hardship and are in need of the money now. For their sake I would like this sorted out as quickly as possible.

I see that Devoncop22 has already replied to your point about the pitch fee issue. A private member’s bill has in fact already been passed in the House of Commons, to legislate against site owners using the RPI figure to calculate increases. This bill will have its second hearing in the House of Lords next Friday.

These things matter greatly to people on very low incomes. Sneering at those most in need and describing the people who recently made a stand for all of us as “having a tantrum” is in my opinion disrespectful.

Spoonie_Turtle

"In the new year" was originally promised. 
Then "January 2023" given in the detailed update in December. 
Now that's been pushed back, not just to February but the end of February. 

Just for some extra context, in another thread a poster mentioned that the complexities of administering a scheme with sufficient ways of verifying people without a relationship with an electricity supplier were mentioned in government documents from early 2022 (I think they may have mentioned Feb 2022).