Technical proposals for the Energy Bills Support Scheme
Download the full outcome
Detail of outcome
The Energy Bills Support Scheme (EBSS) aims to support households with their energy bills through winter 2022 to 2023. As the government announced on 26 May, domestic electricity customers will receive £400 of support with their energy bills, which will be made as a grant. Energy suppliers will deliver this support to households in Great Britain with a domestic electricity contract in instalments over 6 months from October 2022.
The government is urgently working to ensure that the people of Northern Ireland receive the equivalent support as soon as possible.
The proposals in the government response set out the final policy decisions reached for the delivery of the EBSS.
Suppliers will be required to provide each eligible domestic electricity customer they serve on the Qualifying Date (first of each EBSS delivery month) with either £66 or £67 a month during each month that they are eligible for EBSS. How customers receive the grant will depend on their payment method:
- Direct Debit customers: EBSS grants will be provided either as a reduction 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 EBSS delivery. Direct debit dates will remain unchanged
- standard credit customers (pay on receipt): EBSS grants will be applied as a credit to standard credit customers’ accounts in the first week of each month of EBSS delivery, with the credit appearing as it would if the customer had made a payment. The grant should be provided monthly regardless of whether the account is paid monthly, quarterly or has an associated payment card
- payment card customers: EBSS grants will be provided as a credit to payment card customers’ accounts in the first week of each month of EBSS delivery, as if the customer had made a payment. This will be the same whether the account is paid monthly or quarterly
- smart prepayment meter customers: EBSS payments will be remotely applied as credit to smart pre-payment meters in the first week of each month of EBSS delivery
- traditional prepayment meter customers: EBSS grants will be provided as vouchers or Special Action Messages (SAMs) redeemable by traditional prepayment meter customers, from the first week of each month of EBSS delivery. Vouchers can be issued via SMS text, email or post
The draft Secretary of State Direction to suppliers is published alongside this government consultation response document, and a final version will be issued ahead of Scheme launch.
The government will work with Ofgem and suppliers on guidance ahead of implementation of the Scheme from October 2022.
Detail of feedback received
We received 233 responses to this consultation from a range of organisations, including:
- large and small suppliers
- Distribution Network Operators
- consumer groups
- interested charities
We also ran a series of stakeholder engagement sessions before, during and after the consultation, where we presented and discussed the proposals with more than 93 interested parties, including suppliers, consumer groups and charities.
Original consultation
Consultation description
On 3 February 2022 the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a package of support to help domestic energy customers with the costs of rising energy bills, which included the Energy Bills Support Scheme (EBSS).
Through this Scheme, the government will provide funding to all energy suppliers for them to pass a £200 reduction on to their domestic electricity customers. This will be recovered through electricity bills over 5 years starting from 2023-2024. This is a universal measure to help households smooth out the increased costs of energy bills at a time when they are particularly high.
The purpose of this consultation is to collect views on our proposals for:
- the processes needed to provide the funding to energy suppliers
- the mechanisms by which the reduction is passed on to consumers’ bills
- the recovery mechanisms
The Scheme will start from October 2022 and we expect that most customers will receive the reduction automatically. The government and suppliers will provide further information for customers ahead of scheme delivery before the autumn.
The consultation aims to test the design of the scheme, to ensure that support is provided as widely as possible in a simple and cost-effective way, and that the recovery mechanism is clear and efficient. It is open to all to respond, but we would like views in particular from:
- energy suppliers
- industry infrastructure providers
- network operators
- charities
- consumer advocacy groups
Read the BEIS consultation privacy notice.
Documents
Last updated 29 July 2022 + show all updates
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Government response published, accompanied by the Draft Direction made by the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
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First published.