“Unredeemed Energy Vouchers Leave Thousands of Vulnerable Households in the Cold”

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One in five households with a prepaid meter has not redeemed their energy vouchers that were issued to pay bills.

Data consulted by the BBC showed that around 380,000 vouchers, totaling up to 19% of households, were not redeemed each month in October and November.

It means some of the most vulnerable have missed out on up to £50million in government support for energy.

The government was asked for comment by the BBC.

The Energy Support Scheme makes £400 available to every household in the UK.

Most households in England, Scotland and Wales pay their energy bills by direct debit and receive around £66 a month deducted from their bills or automatically credited to their account.

However, the system was more cumbersome for the two million homes that have a traditional pre-payment meter for their gas or electricity. You will receive support in the form of vouchers by post or by email.

An electricity prepayment meter with key

The coupons must then be taken to a local PayPoint store or post office to be credited to a meter.

Many households with traditional prepaid meters are considered to be the most vulnerable. Customers pay for their energy in advance, either through an account or with a top-up card, and in many cases these meters have often been fitted when people have missed bill payments in the past.

Figures from both PayPoint and the Post showed that 81% of coupons for October and November were redeemed before expiry, meaning 19% — about 380,000 households — did not redeem those coupons before the November expiration date on February 5 .

Although the deadline has passed, the voucher money can still be claimed. A person who has not received their voucher or has not redeemed their voucher on time must contact their energy supplier, verify that their contact details are correct and request that the voucher be reissued.

With exactly the same share of unredeemed vouchers for October and November, this could mean some households missed out on both months and will therefore have to pay £132 out of pocket.

According to Citizens Advice, the main reason people don’t redeem an energy voucher is because they haven’t received it yet.

dr Elizabeth Blakelock, an energy specialist for the charity, said some people had been told to check email for vouchers but had no internet access.

“They don’t use an email account regularly, so they can’t use that method,” she added. “And there seem to be a lot of people who have their address information wrong, so they just haven’t ended up on their doorstep.”

Energy suppliers have been criticized for their handling of vulnerable customers and in particular in relation to mandatory built-in prepayment meters.

Charities say vulnerable people who were switched couldn’t afford to top up their meter, leaving them in the cold and dark over the winter.

The latest data comes from a range of developments on the matter over the past 24 hours, including:

• Magistrates’ courts in England and Wales are ordered to stop authorizing search warrants that allow energy companies to break into people’s homes to fit pre-payment meters

• A government-imposed end-Tuesday deadline for businesses to report how they will respond to customer complaints has been wrongly imposed on these counters, e.g. B. to provide compensation payments

• A warning from the Resolution Foundation think-tank that despite falling wholesale prices, bills will still be higher for many people after April, when government support is scaled back

• The National Audit Office said government energy support packages pose value for money risks because they have been universally and quickly rolled out

dr Blakelock said there is a “core group” of people who “just aren’t getting the support they need”.

“What we need to see is that the energy companies are making it really easy for people to get in touch with them so they can reissue those coupons,” she added.

Steve O’Neill, PayPoint’s corporate affairs and marketing director, said of the people who redeemed their coupons at his stores, 23% waited less than a day before redeeming them.

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