People using prepayment meter are being urged to reapply for energy support vouchers after it emerged that one in five households did not redeem their £67 December Energy Bills Support Scheme (EBSS) top-up before they expired. PayPoint sent out hundreds of thousands of vouchers at the start of December as part of the UK Government-backed scheme to help people with their rising energy bills this winter.
But it revealed on Thursday that only 83 per cent of households redeemed these vouchers before they expired a week ago, on March 8. However, despite the shortfall PayPoint said this was an improvement on the previous months as only 81 per cent of vouchers had been redeemed in October and November before they expired.
The EBSS was set to supply £400 to each household in Britain but it was announced when bills were only set to rise to around £2,800 for the average household.
Later it became clear that bills would rise even further and would have hit close to £4,300 for the average household had the UK Government not stepped in with more support.
Before the Budget on Wednesday, the Treasury announced that the UK Government’s £2,500 Energy Price Guarantee would not rise by £500 to £3,000 from April 1.
However, the £400 EBSS has not been extended and will end this month. This will see household bills rise by £67 from April.
PayPoint corporate affairs and marketing director Steve O'Neill said: "EBSS redemptions are still at a level we would expect compared to similar Government schemes, such as the Warm Home Discount.
"However, a recent survey commissioned by PayPoint showed that 15% of people had still never heard of EBSS, which is no doubt contributing to some vouchers going unredeemed.
"If anyone has an unredeemed voucher which has expired, been lost or undelivered, they can ask their energy supplier to reissue it with a new three month validity period."
He continued: "While it is very rare for these schemes to hit a 100% redemption level, we must do everything we can to make sure that people across the UK are aware of EBSS or get vouchers reissued if needed.
"For PayPoint and our 28,000 retailer partners, the top priority is simply to see as many people benefit from EBSS as possible."
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