ALTERNATIVE ENERGY SUPPORT SCHEME OPENS TODAY

Householders not eligible for the £400 energy bills support payment can apply to an alternative scheme from today (Monday).

The Energy Bills Support Scheme Alternative Funding (EBSS Alternative Funding) is a one-off £400 non-repayable discount to eligible households aimed not eligible for the main EBS £400 payment paid directly by government to energy suppliers and credited to energy bills.

EBSS Alternative Funding will target households who are responsible for paying for energy used in their primary dwelling as part of a service charge, rent or other arrangement – for example, those with a commercial landlord or intermediary, such as park home residents, some housing association tenants and self-funding residents in care homes.

Individuals must apply for the EBSS Alternative Funding via the government website at:https://www.gov.uk/apply-energy-bill-support-if-not-automatic

Local authorities are then responsible for distributing support payments to eligible applicants.

SLDC has been awarded £628,000 to deliver the approximately 1,570 payments of £400 per household, based upon government estimations of the number of eligible households within the district.

Councillor Suzie Pye, South Lakeland District Council’s Portfolio Holder for Health, Wellbeing and Poverty Alleviation, said: "I urge anybody eligible for EBSS Alternative Funding to go to the government website and apply – or check the eligibility information if you think you might be eligible.

"This support could mean a great deal to many people and we at South Lakeland District Council are committed to doing the best we possibly can to getting these grants to those who need them."

Notifications informing the applicant of the outcome of their application will be sent directly from the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero, not SLDC. There will be a central call centre where applicants should raise any queries or objections with in the first instance.

Notes

To be eligible for EBSS Alternative Funding applicants must meet the following criteria on the date of their application:

• The dwelling for which support is being claimed is the main or sole residential address of the applicant;
• The applicant or resident is responsible for paying for energy used in the dwelling as part of a service charge, rent or other arrangement, and may, through these charges increasing, have the impact of increased energy bills costs passed on to them between 1 October 2022 and 31 March 2023;
• The household is not already receiving EBSS payments, either through the main EBSS scheme or the EBSS Alternative Funding, in whole or in part.

Provided they can provide sufficient proof of address and are not otherwise ineligible, households eligible for EBSS Alternative Funding include:

• park home residents;

• housing association, social and private tenants, and leaseholders, supplied via a landlord with a commercial meter
• partly and wholly self-funded care home residents;
• households in house boats on residential moorings;
• households on a private electricity network, for example those supplied by a heat network;
• off-grid households;
• traveller households on authorised sites;
• households who live in a dwelling on business premises that is used wholly or partly for domestic purposes;
• households in temporary/supported accommodation (where responsible for paying utilities, and have been resident for over 1 month prior to application).

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