Martin Lewis has explained how the new £400 energy bill reduction announced today by Chancellor Rishi Sunak will work.
The £400 discount is replacing the £200 energy discount people were due to receive from October.
This had been dubbed by critics, including Martin, as a “loan-not-a-loan” due to the cash needing to be repaid from 2023.
The £200 discount has now been turned into a grant - which means the money doesn’t need to be paid back.
Mr Sunak has also increased the amount you’ll get off your bill by an extra £200, taking the total discount to £400.
Shortly after the announcement, Martin took to Twitter to explain how some people were "confused" by the new support.
“Many still confused about the £200 loan-not-loan. It has gone,” said Martin.
“Now in October all energy bills will be reduced by a flat £400. This is not repayable. This is a grant.
“Every household that gets an energy bill will get it.”
Are you worried about rising energy bills? Let us know: mirror.money.saving@mirror.co.uk
The new £400 payment will be available to every household in England, Scotland and Wales - approximately 28 million people - and will be spread out over six months from October.
Rather than a cash payment, the money will be applied directly to your energy account.
Direct debit and credit customers will have the money credited to their account, while those with pre-payment meters will have the money added to their meter or paid via a voucher.
Support to people in Northern Ireland is expected to be announced.
Other cost of living measures announced today by the Chancellor include a one-off payment worth £650 to 8.4million people who claim means-tested benefits.
This includes Universal Credit, Pension Credit, Tax Credit and other means-tested payments where your earnings are measured. You can see a full list here.
For these payments, there will be one payment to come in July and one in the autumn.
This cash will be tax-free, will not count towards the benefit cap, and will not have any impact on existing benefit awards.
In the autumn, pensioner households will get £300 one-off payment and disabled people will get a £150 payment.
Ministers had ruled out restoring the £20 Universal Credit uplift that was temporarily available during Covid.
Benefits usually rise annually in April along based on the inflation rate for the previous September.
Mr Sunak confirmed the extra help in the House of Commons this afternoon as part of a wider £15billion cost of living package, partly funded by a new windfall tax on energy firms.
