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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Business
Levi Winchester

Three-week warning for thousands of homes to claim £200 energy help - how to apply

Households using alternative fuels to heat their homes have three weeks left to claim £200 in energy support.

Around two million people across the UK use fuels such as heating oil, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), coal or biomass.

Most of these households should have automatically received the £200 Alternative Fuel Payment in February.

This was on top of the £400 energy bill support you should have received from your electricity supplier.

If you live in Northern Ireland, you should have got £600, made up of the £400 energy bill support and £200 Alternative Fuel Payment.

But not everyone received the £200 payment automatically, and the deadline for applying is May 31.

You can apply to get the £200 payment on the Gov.uk website, or by calling 0808 175 3287 (0808 175 3894 in Northern Ireland).

You should receive an email or letter within six weeks of applying, confirming whether you'll get the payment.

If you are eligible, the money will be sent as a bank transfer.

You’ll need to provide proof of the alternative fuels you’ve purchased since June 1, 2022, totalling at least £200.

The deadline for applying for the £200 payment comes as Ofgem is due to announce its price cap rate for July to September on May 25.

The majority of households are currently covered by the Energy Price Guarantee, which has set the typical energy bill at £2,500 a year.

This has effectively replaced the Ofgem price cap and has been in place since October 2022.

But there isn't actually a total cap on how much you can pay for energy.

What both the Energy Price Guarantee and Ofgem price cap do is put a limit on how much you can be charged for unit rates and standing charges.

The Energy Price Guarantee is due to rise to £3,000 in July - but by this point, analysts suggest energy prices will fall and we’ll go back to the Ofgem price cap.

Cornwall Insight suggests the typical bill under the Ofgem price cap could drop to around £2,062 a year from July, before rising to £2,098 from October.

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