Every household with a domestic connection to the electricity grid in England, Scotland and Wales was eligible for the £400 discount.
The £400 Energy Bills Support Scheme payments ended in March 2023 for most households. This guide is here for reference only.
If you’re looking for support, visit our guide on financial support for energy efficiency.
If you’re contacted by a company claiming that you can access the £400 Energy Bills Support Scheme, it might be a scam. For more information, visit our guide on how to spot an energy scam.
In September 2022, the UK Government announced the October price cap would not go ahead as planned.
Instead, typical households in England, Scotland and Wales paid up to an average of £2,500 a year on their energy bills until June 2023. From 1 July 2023, energy prices went back to being set by Ofgem’s price cap.
The UK Government said households in Great Britain would still get the planned £400 discount on their electricity bills. This was as part of a package of support to help people deal with rising energy costs. The grant was known as the Energy Bills Support Scheme and it wouldn’t need to be repaid.
Here’s everything you need to know about how it worked.
Who got the £400 discount?
How did people get the discount?
People didn’t need to apply for the discount. It was out by electricity suppliers to consumers over six months, with the first payments starting in October 2022.
In October and November, households had get a discount of £66 per month on their energy bills. This changed to £67 each month from December through to March 2023.
Every household had the discount each month, regardless of how they paid for their energy.
Did people need to contact their energy supplier for the discount?
No, they didn’t need to contact their supplier, as all households with a domestic electricity connection were automatically given the discount.
How was the £400 discount paid?
This depended on how people paid for their energy bills:
Was it a loan that had to be paid back?
The £400 was a grant, not a loan, so didn’t need to be repaid.
Could someone get the discount if they lived in a park home, houseboat or off the grid?
The government estimated that around 1% of households in the UK were ineligible to receive the £400 discount, as they didn’t have a domestic electricity meter or a direct relationship with an electricity supplier.
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