Home > News > UK Households on Prepayment Meters Aren’t Using Vouchers

UK Households on Prepayment Meters Aren’t Using Vouchers

British households on prepayment meters face missing out on up to £130m of support for their energy bills if they fail to redeem government vouchers before expiring in a month.

Under the energy bills support scheme, which runs until 30 June, all households are entitled to discounts of up to £400.

Those on direct debits and smart prepayment meters received the payments automatically. Still, those on analogue prepay devices were sent vouchers by post or email and have had to take them to a post office or PayPoint vendor for the cash to be credited to the meter.

The government said 83% of those vouchers, worth either £66 or £67, had been claimed. Of the 11.6m vouchers issued by suppliers, with a total value of £780m, only 9.7m – or £650m worth – have been cashed in.

Data showed that London had the lowest redemption rate for the sixth month in a row, with more than 650,000 vouchers still unused at the end of March. About a quarter of vouchers in Scotland and the south-east of England have also yet to be claimed.

Since the scheme’s launch last autumn, data has consistently shown that between a fifth and a quarter of the prepay vouchers have been left unredeemed.

Matthew Cole, head of Fuel Bank Foundation, said it had found that some households had not received vouchers as their details were incorrect or they had moved house, or because they had lost or deleted the voucher.

The consumer champion Martin Lewis and campaign groups had urged the government to investigate the low redemption rates and raise awareness of the scheme.

The government said on Wednesday it had mounted a “final push” to encourage households to claim the support. Amanda Solloway, the minister for energy consumers and affordability, said: “Today we are redoubling our efforts to reach anyone who still hasn’t claimed this help.”

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