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How to get 400 to pay energy bills this month - hundreds of thousands can claim cost of living cash

Applications for 'Energy Bills Support Scheme Alternative Funding' will open in February

[An online energy bill]

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An online energy bill(Image: Jacob King/PA)

Households around the UK will be able to get 400 to help with their energy bills this month.

The UK government has said some 900,000 homes will be eligible for this. This is a delay from the payments that were meant to come in at the end of January.

The Energy Bills Support Scheme Alternative Funding application portal is expected to be up and running by Monday, February 27, 2023. Once the online hub and telephone helpline open, households without a direct relationship with a domestic electricity supplier can apply for their 400 energy payment, the Mirror reports.

Read More: All the cost of living payments in February and when rest of DWP cash is coming

This includes people who live in park homes, houseboats, off-grid and care homes, or those paying their energy bills as part of an all-inclusive rental agreement with their landlord.

Energy Minister Graham Stuart, the MP for Beverley and Holderness, told MPs about the revised opening date in the House of Commons last week. He blamed the delay on the "complicated" nature of the application process.

He told MPs: The EBSS alternative funding sounds simple, but it is not. It is a novel scheme with ambitious timescales. It is a complex cohort with a range of different energy arrangements, including off-grid, direct to commercial and via intermediaries."

Mr Stuart said the Government must "make sure" it sorts out all complexities first because, if it "does not get it right first time" it would cause a delay in payments to consumers.

The energy minister also explained that "robust fraud checks are necessary for an application-based system, to which there is no alternative for this group" and every step of the process must be tested. He added: My priority is to get funding to people as quickly as possible.

The Government announced the alternative finding scheme last year as those who do not have a direct relationship with their supplier have had to face significant rises to their bills with little support.

The group includes:

• care home residents
• residents of park homes
• tenants in certain private and social rented homes
• homes supplied via private wires
• residents of caravans and houseboats on registered sites
• farmers living in domestic farmhouses
• off-grid households

To get this support, these households will need to submit an online form through the Government's website when it opens at the end of this month.

Once the application is submitted and has been processed and verified, eligible applications will be shared with local councils across England, Scotland and Wales, who will deliver the one-off, non-repayable 400 payment.

The exact you will then receive the cash depends on when you submit your application and when you local authority can process the payment. The payment will likely be made at some point in March, but no confirmation of this has yet been made by the Government.

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