Energy bills: Thousands of valuable vouchers go unclaimed – act now | Personal Finance | Finance
Energy vouchers worth £66 or £67 each are being issued to millions, but many have been left unclaimed. Households who are on prepayment meters are being urged to check for their energy bill support vouchers before June 30, 2023.
The vouchers are part of the Government’s scheme to provide every household with £400 off their bills to help during the cold snap of winter.
The scheme started back in October, with direct debit customers automatically getting £66 per month off their bills.
But for prepayment meter customers, vouchers were sent out to provide assistance.
Traditional prepayment meter vouchers can arrive in various ways, so Britons should keep an eye out.
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The vouchers can come in the post, via email or by text, whichever is most convenient.
However, they must be redeemed within 90 days or they will expire.
Prepayment customers will then need to take these vouchers to their local Post Office or PayPoint store so they can be credited to their meter.
A total of 1.7million energy vouchers were used in January 2023 alone, according to consumer website Which?.
But according to research from The Guardian back in February 2023, nearly a quarter of these vouchers had still not been redeemed.
With a final deadline of June 30, 2023, prepayment customers may wish to take action sooner rather than later.
Previously, a Government spokesperson urged Britons to redeem their vouchers as soon as possible.
They added: “When a voucher is not redeemed, suppliers must make at least three attempts to reach the customer, by more than one means which can include post, email and text message.”
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Some people may have forgotten to redeem their vouchers within a 90 day period – meaning they have expired.
However, the money doesn’t have to be lost forever as energy suppliers can reissue vouchers which have expired in the past.
In this case, Britons will need to contact their supplier as soon as possible to ask for a new voucher. Reissued vouchers will be valid for another 90 days.
Prepayment customers are also set to receive more support from July 2023 onwards, the Government has confirmed.
More than four million struggling and vulnerable households will save money through a new action announced by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.
Mr Hunt intends to bring prepayment energy charges in line with customers who pay via direct debit.
The Chancellor stated the measure would help prepayment customers save £45 per year.
Mr Hunt told the Commons: “Prepayment customers are often the poorest households, but they currently pay more than comparable customers on direct debit.
“Ofgem has already agreed with suppliers a temporary suspension to forced installations of prepayment meters.
“But I go further, and confirm we will bring their charges in line with comparable direct debit charges. The energy premium paid by our poorest households is coming to an end.”
