Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether his Department has made an assessment of the implications for its policies of the position where Warm Home Discount payments have been issued to energy suppliers but not applied to eligible customer accounts; and if he will make a statement.

The Government sets the annual spending envelope and, under the Warm Home Discount scheme in England and Wales, identifies eligible households through data matching with participating energy suppliers. However, the rebates are not funded by the Government; energy suppliers are responsible for providing the payments.

The Government sends ‘instructions to pay’ to energy suppliers to provide payments to these customers. Energy suppliers are legally required to provide the rebates to those customers, or provide a reason why they cannot, once they have received an instruction to pay. Ofgem monitors suppliers’ compliance against their obligation.