Martin Lewis has offered a ray of hope to those deeply worried about the energy crisis after saying he "begged and pleaded" in a bid to stop a catastrophe from happening.
The money expert, 50, appeared on Good Morning Britain with Susanna Reid as he addressed the Energy Price Guarantee - a new scheme that will override Ofgem's energy price cap.
Energy regulator Ofgem had announced in August that the energy price cap would see energy bills rise by 80%, but Prime Minister Liz Truss later announced her decision to freeze energy bills for the next two years.
This means that a typical household in Britain will pay no more than £2,500 a year as their energy bills until October 2024.
Speaking on GMB, Martin warned that the help promised to those on gas and heating oil in rural areas - through discretionary payments - was unlikely to happen by October 1.
"I think that will be something that will take more time," he said. "My team and I are constantly on top of this but we don't have any more information on that.
"And just to pre-empt questions, all the price cap guarantees for England, Scotland and Wales - Northern Ireland is on a different system. It has been said that there will be moves to give the same level of reduction in bills to people in Northern Ireland, but we have no more further detail on that. That may well need legislation to do it. I don't see that coming in by October 1 either. That's my guess. I just don't have the answers. I am asking the questions."
Asked whether he knew when the second cost of living payment was, he replied that "autumn" was the answer he had been given.
"So we've had the first payment and I expect the next payment may come in six weeks or two months," he replied. "But the current answer I'm getting when I ask that question is autumn."
He continued: "I sound like I'm being negative on this - it's taken far too long for this to come into place but I have called and begged and pleaded for intervention to stop the catastrophe that was coming this winter on energy bills.
"And this price guarantee does have a very substantial mitigated impact on bills going up."
*Good Morning Britain airs weekdays at 6am on ITV
