One million energy vouchers unclaimed in cold snap

More than one million households with pre-payment meters did not redeem their monthly energy support vouchers during the cold weather snap in December.

Firms where prepayment customers can cash vouchers said postal strikes may have delayed some voucher deliveries.

The Energy Support Scheme provides £400 to all households in Britain and those on pre-payment meters are sent vouchers each month.

The government said energy suppliers had promised to improve processes.

Most homes get the £400 government energy bill support automatically, with about £66 of credit being added to their energy accounts each month, if they pay by direct debit.

But about two million energy customers get energy support for pre-payment meters via vouchers.

They can be redeemed at the Post Office or cashed at stores in the PayPoint network, with roughly half redeemed at each.

Vouchers are sent by post to three quarters of the eligible people using Paypoint, while a quarter are sent via email.

For October, Paypoint said 80% of the vouchers were redeemed, while that figure was 73% in November.

But figures seen by the BBC show that only about 27% of December's vouchers had been cashed at PayPoint stores by 18 December, despite the recent cold snap which gripped much of the UK.

"December vouchers issued by email have already seen high levels of redemption, though December postal voucher redemptions are lower than we would expect, which could be linked to strike action in the UK causing delayed delivery," said Steve O'Neill, director of corporate affairs at PayPoint.

The Post Office, which is the other provider processing the vouchers, also said Royal Mail strikes may have led to delays in customers receiving their vouchers.

The Post Office said 70% of vouchers had been claimed for October and November by the 19th day of those months, but 63% had been claimed by 19 December.

With average temperatures hitting zero or below for large swathes of the country over a two-week period, many people on pre-payment meters were struggling to afford to top up, charities told the BBC.

Citizens Advice said it made more referrals for emergency energy vouchers and charitable support than ever before in the first week of the cold snap. More than 4,300 referrals were made between 5 and 12 December, which was 1,200 more than the previous week.

The Fuel Bank Foundation is Britain's only national charity to provide emergency help to people living without heat, light and power in their homes. Between the 5 and 12 December it issued vouchers totalling £350,000, the most it has ever processed.

The foundation only provides help after a referral from an advice agency, a charity or a food bank where a household is unable to access the cash needed to pre-pay for energy. It mostly sends voucher codes by text or email to enable people to top up meters immediately.

Matthew Cole, head of Fuel Bank Foundation, said although payments must always be secure, the system of sending out vouchers in the post was placing unnecessary barriers for people who often needed the heating most.

"We've helped about 700,000 people to date and [only] about 27 of those have been by post," he said.

"If the government was to repeat this programme there needs to be some real thought about how you make sure that meters are topped up automatically rather than requiring someone to go to the corner shop to redeem something. Every step you add to a process there's a chance that things may go slightly wrong," he added.

Take-up of the vouchers was not as quick as it could have been in October and November, with concerns that old addresses were being used, as well as a distrust by many for anything that looks like it could be a scam.

Andrew Goddard, head of payments at Post Office, said people needed to get in touch with their energy provider to ensure their details are up to date.

"We have been able to reissue 40,000 vouchers in October and November to people who got in touch with their energy provider, update their address details and are now receiving the monthly vouchers they are entitled to," he said.

Gillian Cooper, head of energy policy at Citizens Advice, called on the government and suppliers to make it a priority to fix any issues with people getting the support they're entitled to.

"People should be able to easily contact their supplier to get the help they need," she said. "Energy companies must reissue vouchers that haven't been received and check customers are getting support in the most suitable format - be it text, post or email."

The government said that since an initial BBC report about vouchers not being claimed, energy minister Graham Stuart has met the chief executives of the energy firms and received assurances that improvements were being made.

A spokesperson said: "The UK government has stringent compliance and enforcement measures in place with all suppliers for the Energy Bills Support Scheme, and we require them to report to us on a monthly basis on their delivery."