£400 energy discount scheme

Kingman28

Hi
We currently live in a park home on a residential park home site in Dumfries & Galloway and pay our Electricity bills directly to the site owner. We have yet to receive any help from the energy discount scheme but have been advised that we will be able to complete and submit an online application form to our local council on 27th February. The problem we have is that we are in the throws of moving from our park home in Scotland to an old peoples bungalow in the Richmondshire Council area of North Yorkshire on the 2nd March. Can anyone offer any advice on what we do to receive our £400 discount. We obviously don't want to miss out on it but we are unsure where exactly we stand as we are no longer going to be a park home owner come 2nd March so wouldn't be able to claim through that scheme given the fact that the application form is not going live until 27th Feb. Can you advise who we need to approach once we are down in Yorkshire ? 

ariarnia

i would say contact your current council and ask them. 

if you have proof that you WERE a park home resident and were eligible then i would think you could still apply. 

or (and i know its a complete pain when moving) apply on the 27th or 28th feb (ive not seen it but if the form isnt to long or complicated it might be doable over a coffee. not ideal but would get around the problem)

macman

The EBSS was not applicable retrospectively, so there's no reason to think that the Alternative Support will be. If it's applied as a single lump sum payment, then there will be a qualifying date: no-one knows yet what that might be.
If you are moving into a property with an electricity account on 2/3/23, then you won't get anything under the EBSS, as the qualifying date for the last payment will be 1st March, one day earlier. If you moved in and registered for an account with the deemed supplier 24 hours earlier, you would get the £67 for March.

Kingman28

Thank you for your comments ariarnia. I'll certainly contact them.

EssexHebridean

I was also going to suggest getting the form completed and lodged as soon as it is available to you - ie just before you move, assuming that the qualifying dates for it end up being the same as for the EBSS I see no reason why you could not still be eligible for the support. Of course, as above, we don’t yet know whether those will be the dates, so…! 

Kingman28

Thank you for all the support and advice. It's very much appreciated.

ZolaBuddy

The government website for applications is available online now, although it won't accept applications until the 27th. 

https://www.gov.uk/apply-energy-bill-support-if-not-automatic?fbclid=IwAR0wmrzeV9p5Hrgkzb4XqJrN_R0mABEN10Qhg3hq-vd-2tDwhtwSG-smzTc

Kingman28

Thank you ZolaBuddy. I'll have a look at the website.

ariarnia

ZolaBuddy said:

The government website for applications is available online now, although it won't accept applications until the 27th. 

https://www.gov.uk/apply-energy-bill-support-if-not-automatic?fbclid=IwAR0wmrzeV9p5Hrgkzb4XqJrN_R0mABEN10Qhg3hq-vd-2tDwhtwSG-smzTc

shame (but understandable i guess) to see that tenants who pay via there landlord on a domestic tarrif still can't get help. 

the landlord should be passing on a share of the 400 (depending on how many are using the supply) but in my experience theres not much difference in rent/costs between a bedsit in a converted house with a shared meter and a studio apartment with a dedicated meter so they'll still be comparatively worse of thru no fault of there own. 

Spoonie_Turtle

ariarnia said:

ZolaBuddy said:

The government website for applications is available online now, although it won't accept applications until the 27th. 

https://www.gov.uk/apply-energy-bill-support-if-not-automatic?fbclid=IwAR0wmrzeV9p5Hrgkzb4XqJrN_R0mABEN10Qhg3hq-vd-2tDwhtwSG-smzTc

shame (but understandable i guess) to see that tenants who pay via there landlord on a domestic tarrif still can't get help. 

the landlord should be passing on a share of the 400 (depending on how many are using the supply) but in my experience theres not much difference in rent/costs between a bedsit in a converted house with a shared meter and a studio apartment with a dedicated meter so they'll still be comparatively worse of thru no fault of there own. 

I think that's poor wording on the page, open to interpretation and putting people off.  It will be interesting to see the actual guidance when it comes out - the scheme was to help those who didn't benefit from the automatic EBSS.

EssexHebridean

Is the issue that it would be pretty much impossible to prove whether the LL has passed on the money, or not? Or simply that the management of it - needing to find out if anything had been shared out, and if so, what percentage of the £400 has gone to each tenant - would just be too complex? 

I agree that considering the number of folk we've seen on here whose LL's have NOT shared it out, it does seem unfair.