This briefing covers the universal energy bill support schemes introduced by the Government in 2022 and 2023 to help households and businesses with rising energy prices, as part of its wider support with the rising cost of living. It provides a guide to relevant sources that answer frequent questions on the schemes.
Where complex issues are raised it may be more appropriate to refer constituents to specialist bodies and organisations or to a solicitor if legal advice is sought.
The Library briefing Help with energy bills (March 2019) provides information on pre-existing, targeted support schemes for households such as the Winter Fuel Payments, Cold Weather Payments and Warm Home Discount.
The support schemes covered
This briefing covers the support schemes listed below. Constituents may be eligible for multiple schemes, depending on their circumstances. The “quick guide” tables at the bottom of this landing page provide a reference to help identify which schemes are relevant to any given constituent.
- Energy Price Guarantee (EPG): a discount on domestic electricity and gas prices over the period 1 October 2022 to 31 March 2024
- Energy Bills Support Scheme (EBSS), including the EBSS Alternative Fund: a one-off £400 payment to households to help with bills over winter 2022-23
- Energy Bills Discount Scheme (EBDS): a discount on non-domestic electricity and gas prices over the period 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024
- Energy Bill Relief Scheme (EBRS), including the EBRS for non-standard customers: a discount on non-domestic electricity and gas prices over the period 1 October 2022 to 31 March 2023
- Alternative Fuel Payments (AFP), including the AFP Alternative Fund and the Non-Domestic AFP: a one-off payment for households (£200) and non-domestic customers (at least £150) who are not on the mains gas grid and use an alternative fuel (such as heating oil) for heating.
- Pass-through requirements for the EBSS, EPG, EBRS and AFP, including specific pass-through requirements for heat networks: these require third party intermediaries to pass on benefits to end users
The Energy Prices Act 2022 created powers to set up, or deliver aspects of, each of these schemes. For more information see the Library briefing on the Energy Prices Bill 2022-23.
Key resources
- Households: The government guide help with your energy bills summarises the various support schemes and includes links to further information.
- Businesses, charities and public sector organisations: There is a Government guide to the Energy Bills Discount Scheme. Older guidance on the Energy Bill Relief Scheme also provides information on wider support schemes for non-domestic customers.
The guidance documents referred to in this briefing are current at the time of writing. However, information on the new schemes is being updated frequently, so it is advisable to check the relevant websites, particularly the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), for updates.
Further reading
The Government’s Help for Households website has advice on actions that households can take to cut their energy use and save money this winter. Its webpage on Help with your energy bills has links to various cost of living and energy bill support schemes.
The following Library briefings provide more information on energy bills and wider support available to help constituents with these:
- Gas and electricity prices under the Energy Price Guarantee and beyond
- Domestic energy prices
- Help with energy bills (March 2019): this provides information on longer-term support schemes, practical steps households can take to reduce their bills, and sources of information and advice.
- Help with energy efficiency, heating and renewable energy in homes (July 2022)
- Heat networks and energy prices (April 2022)
- Constituency casework: Help with energy bills for businesses, public sector organisations and charities (December 2022)
Quick guide: which schemes are relevant to my constituent?
The tables below provide a reference to help you identify which of the support schemes covered by this briefing are likely to be relevant for any given household (Table 2) or non-domestic constituent (including businesses, charities and public sector organisations) (Table 3).
The key to scheme abbreviations (Table 1) gives directions to the relevant sections of this briefing for each scheme.
Table 1 Key to scheme abbreviations |
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| Abbreviation | Name of scheme | Where to find information in this briefing |
| AFP | Alternative Fuel Payments | Section 6 |
| AFP AF | Alternative Fuel Payments Alternative Fund | Section 6.1 |
| AFP (PTR) | Alternative Fuel Payments (pass through requirements) | Sections 6 and 7 |
| EBDS | Energy Bill Discount Scheme | Section 4 |
| EBRS | Energy Bill Relief Scheme | Section 5 |
| EBRS (PTR) | Energy Bill Relief Scheme (pass through requirements) | Sections 5 and 7 |
| EBRS NSC | Energy Bill Relief Scheme for non-standard customers | Section 5.3 |
| EBSS | Energy Bills Support Scheme | Section 3 |
| EBSS (PTR) | Energy Bills Support Scheme (pass through requirements) | Sections 3 and 7 |
| EBSS AF | Energy Bills Support Scheme Alternative Funding | Section 3.2 |
| EPG | Energy Price Guarantee | Section 2 |
| EPG (PTR) | Energy Price Guarantee (pass through requirements) | Sections 2 and 7 |
| ND AFP | Non-domestic Alternative Fuel Payments | Section 6 |
| ND AFP (PTR) | Non-domestic Alternative Fuel Payments (pass through requirements) | Sections 6 and 7 |
Table 2 Support schemes for households: to identify all schemes that may be relevant for your constituent, please review all of questions 1-4 |
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| Question | Answer | Relevant schemes |
| 1. Does the constituent live in Northern Ireland? | Yes | EBSS AFP See also Qs 2-4 |
| No | n/a See Qs 2-4 |
|
| 2. How does the constituent pay for their electricity? | They pay a licensed energy suppliera directly, and they have a domestic electricity supply contract | EBSS EPG |
| They pay a licensed energy suppliera directly, but they have a non-domestic electricity supply contract. (This may be the case for constituents who share one electricity supply for their home and their business.) | EBSS AF EBRS (until 31/3/2023) EBDS (from 1/4/2023) |
|
| They pay a third party intermediary (e.g. a landlord) and the intermediary has a domestic electricity supply contract. | EBSS (PTR) EPG (PTR) |
|
| They pay a third party intermediary (e.g. a landlord, park site owner, university halls of residence, or 'private wire' electricity network) and the intermediary has a non-domestic electricity supply contract. | EBSS AF EBRS (PTR) (until 31/3/2023 Consultation on further support expected summer 2023b |
|
| They do not have an electricity supply linked to the national electricity grid. (Some constituents may be off the electricity grid, e.g. those living on canal boats or in very remote areas.) | EBSS AF | |
| 3. Does the constituent have a mains gas supply, and if so, how do they pay for it? | Yes, and they pay a licensed energy suppliera directly for a domestic gas supply contract | EPG |
| Yes, and they pay a licensed energy suppliera directly, but they have a non-domestic gas supply contract. (This may be the case for constituents who share one gas supply for their home and their business.) | EBRS (until 31/3/2023) EBDS (from 1/4/ 2023) |
|
| Yes, and they pay a third party intermediary (e.g. a landlord) and the intermediary has a domestic gas supply contract. | EPG (PTR) | |
| Yes, and they pay a third party intermediary (e.g. a landlord, park site owner, university halls of residence, or communal network) and the intermediary has a non-domestic gas supply contract. | EBRS (PTR) (until 31/3/2023) Consultation on further support expected summer 2023b |
|
| No, they do not have a mains gas connection. | n/a | |
| 4. What is the main way that the constituent heats their home? | Electricity (e.g. with electric heaters or a heat pump) | See Q2 |
| Mains gas (e.g. with a gas boiler) | See Q3 | |
| Heat network, where this is fuelled by electricity or gas | EBRS (PTR) (until 31/3/2023)b New support will be introducedc |
|
| Heat network, where this is fuelled by an "alternative fuel" eg: heating oil (kerosene) or biomass (wood-based fuels such as wood pellets) | ND AFP (PTR) | |
| An "alternative fuel", where they purchase this from the fuel supplier directly. Alternative fuels include: heating oil (kerosene), liquified petroleum gas (LPG), coal, biomass (wood-fuel or biogas). | AFP (if they have a domestic electricity supply contract) AFP AF (if they do not) |
|
| An "alternative fuel", where they purchase this from an intermediary (e.g. landlord). Alternative fuels include: heating oil (kerosene), liquified petrolum gas (LPG), coal, biomass (wood-fuel or biogas). | AFP (PTR) or ND AFP (PTR) depending on the support received by the intermediary | |
| Notes: | ||
| a. A licensed energy supplier is an electricity or gas supplier which holds a licence from Ofgem to supply domestic or non-domestic customers, or both. This includes well-known retail energy companies such as the “big five” energy companies (British Gas, EDF, E.ON, Scottish Power, Ovo), as well as smaller energy suppliers such as Octopus Energy and Boost Energy. Third party intermediaries (for example, a park site owner, a landlord or a heat network) are not usually licensed energy suppliers. Instead these intermediaries usually buy energy from a licensed supplier, and then sell it on to the end users. | ||
| b. In the 2023 Spring Budget, the Government announced it is developing new support for households on a non-domestic meter where they face lower levels of support than other domestic consumers. It announced DESNZ will issue a call for evidence on this before the summer. | ||
| c. In the 2023 Spring Budget, the Government announced heat network customers on non-domestic heating contracts will receive a new, sector specific support rate to ensure they do not face disproportionately higher energy bills than consumers under the EPG. It has yet to announce further details. | ||
Table 3 Support schemes for non-domestic customers (including businesses, charities and public sector organisations): to identify all schemes that may be relevant for your constituent, please review both questions 5 and 6 |
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| Question | Answer | Relevant schemes |
| 5. How does the constituent pay for their electricity and/or gas? | They pay a licensed energy suppliera, and they have a non-domestic electricity/gas supply contract | EBRS (until 31/3/2023) EBDS (from 1/4/ 2023) |
| They pay a licensed energy suppliera, but they have a domestic electricity/gas supply contract. (This may be the case for some microbusinesses.) | EBSS EPG |
|
| They pay a third party intermediary (e.g. a landlord, heat network, or 'private wire' electricity network) and the intermediary has a non-domestic electricity/gas supply contract. | EBRS (PTR) (until 31/3/2023) | |
| They take their energy from the public electricity/gas grid, but they pay an unlicensed provider or they participate in the wholesale market directly | EBRS NSC (until 31/3/2023) EBDS (from 1/4/ 2023) |
|
| 6. What is the main way that the constituent heats their property? | Electricity (e.g. with electric heaters or a heat pump) | See Q5 |
| Mains gas (e.g. with a gas boiler or a combined heat and power (CHP) plant) | See Q5 | |
| Heat network, where the heat network is fuelled by electricity or gas | EBRS (PTR) (until 31/3/2023) | |
| Heat network, where the heat network is fuelled by an "alternative fuel", for example: heating oil (kerosene) or biomass (wood-fuel or biogas) | ND AFP (PTR) | |
| An "alternative fuel", where they purchase this from the fuel supplier directly. Alternative fuels include: heating oil (kerosene), liquified petroleum gas (LPG), coal, biomass (wood-fuel or biogas). | ND AFP | |
| An "alternative fuel", where they purchase this from an intermediary (e.g. landlord). Alternative fuels include: heating oil (kerosene), liquified petroleum gas (LPG), coal, biomass (wood-fuel or biogas). | ND AFP (PTR) | |
| Notes: | ||
| a. A licensed energy supplier is an electricity or gas supplier which holds a licence from Ofgem to supply domestic or non-domestic customers, or both. This includes well-known retail energy companies such as the “big five” energy companies (British Gas, EDF, E.ON, Scottish Power, Ovo), as well as smaller energy suppliers such as Octopus Energy and Boost Energy. Third party intermediaries (for example, a park site owner, a landlord or a heat network) are not usually licensed energy suppliers. Instead these intermediaries usually buy energy from a licensed supplier, and then sell it on to the end users. | ||