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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate he has made of the number of people who have been accepted for the Warm Home Discount scheme and who have not yet had that discount applied to their energy bill.

Under the Warm Home Discount Core Group, to qualify a person, or their partner, should have been in receipt of the Pension Credit Guarantee Credit element on the qualification date 7th July 2019. There are 1.3 million such households though not all of them have accounts with obligated energy suppliers.

Energy suppliers are required to pay a minimum of 1.1 million rebates to the Warm Home Discount Broader Group out of around 1.5 million households eligible under the mandatory eligibility criteria. In addition to the criteria set by Government, energy suppliers can get additional criteria approved by Ofgem making the eligible pool larger.

Most suppliers pay rebates to the Core Group between October and the end of January and we estimate that around 1.1 million will receive the rebate this winter. We expect energy suppliers to pay most of the Broader Group rebates, on a first-come first-served basis, by the end of February. Suppliers have until the 31st March to provide rebates under the scheme.