Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of providing support to users of prepayment energy meters who are unable to make prepayment.

Ofgem has rules in place that require energy suppliers to provide extra support for customers using prepayment meters. These include an obligation on suppliers to make emergency and friendly-hours credit available to all pre-payment meter customers. Where a supplier identifies that a prepayment customer is self-disconnecting or self-rationing their supply, they must also offer additional support credit. When assessing how a customer will repay any credit offered, suppliers must consider their ability to pay.

The Government is already taking action to support households with rising energy bills through a package of support worth £9.1 billion in 2022-23. This includes a £150 Council Tax rebate for bands A-D for properties in England, with funding provided to the Devolved Administrations for comparable provision, £144 million discretionary funding for local authorities and a £200 energy bill reduction from October 2022 to be recouped over 5 years from 2023. This support is available to customers with prepayment meters.

As announced in the Spring Statement, the Government continues to provide targeted cost of living support for households most in need. From April, an additional £500 million will be provided to help households with the cost of essentials, bringing total funding for this support to £1 billion. In England, £421 million will be provided to extend the existing Household Support Fund, whilst the devolved administrations will receive £79 million through the Barnett formula.