 Hundreds of thousands of older people missed out on financial support for soaring fuel bills after a Government scheme 'flopped', a charity has claimed. Age UK said some 735,240 households missed out on support under the Energy Bills Support Scheme (EBSS) Alternative Fund amounting to almost £3 million. That fund – for households without a direct relationship to a domestic energy supplier, such as those in park homes or living on boats – has already faced criticism from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC). The MPs said, in a June report, that many such households only became eligible for funding at the end of February, almost five months after consumers began receiving discounts on the main scheme. Now Age UK has said Freedom of Information data requested on its behalf showed that, of the Government's estimated 883,000 eligible UK households with atypical supply arrangements, only around 17% – equivalent to about 150,000 – were actually awarded the £400 of energy support available this year. The charity said many of those who missed out were older people living in park homes and care homes. It said its analysis of figures from the Department of Energy, Security and Net Zero also showed that households in areas of the country with higher levels of fuel poverty appeared less likely to have accessed the funding. It said that while more than a fifth (22%) of eligible households in the South East, where fuel poverty is lowest, got funding, this compared to 13% of eligible households in the North East and London. Thousands of families may have been impacted (Picture: Getty Images/iStockphoto) In terms of who was able to successfully access the funding, Age UK said eligible care home residents were least likely to have done so, with only around one in 14 of them (7%) receiving the £400 energy help. This compared to around a third of park home and houseboat residents (35%) and){kind=link}
NEWS… BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT
Hundreds of thousands of older people missed out on financial support for soaring fuel bills after a Government scheme ‘flopped’, a charity has claimed.
Age UK said some 735,240 households missed out on support under the Energy Bills Support Scheme (EBSS) Alternative Fund amounting to almost £3 million.
That fund – for households without a direct relationship to a domestic energy supplier, such as those in park homes or living on boats – has already faced criticism from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
The MPs said, in a June report, that many such households only became eligible for funding at the end of February, almost five months after consumers began receiving discounts on the main scheme.