Martin Lewis issues 10-day warning over energy vouchers
‘On non-smart prepay for energy? You have until 30 June to use or lose your £400 government help vouchers’
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Your support makes all the difference.Martin Lewis has issued an urgent warning to those using a non-smart prepayment meter that they have until 30 June to claim £400 energy support.
“I don’t know how much more loudly I can spread this message. If you’re a prepayment energy customer, you only have 10 days left to claim the £66 or £67 a month vouchers that you got,” he said on the Martin Lewis Money Show on Tuesday.
“This is specifically for those on non-smart prepay meters.”
Households in England, Scotland and Wales with a domestic electricity account got a non-repayable grant of £400 between October 2022 and March 2023.
This was paid in six instalments. The first two, worth £66 each, were made in October and November and another four, worth £67 each, were made between December and March.
The latest official statistics, however, showed that over 1.7 million vouchers – or 15 per cent worth over £110m in total – have yet to be redeemed.
Earlier figures from PayPoint and the Post Office, the firms processing the vouchers, showed that nearly a fifth, or 19 per cent of vouchers issued for October and November last year, expired without being used.
“If you have a non-smart (traditional) prepayment meter, you need to actively redeem the vouchers you’ve been sent.
“Once you’ve got a voucher from your energy supplier, you need to take it to a Post Office or PayPoint shop to add it to your gas or electricity top-up key or card,” the money-saving expert said on his website.
“Those paying their energy suppliers directly by direct debit, on receipt of a bill or using smart prepayment meters didn’t need to do anything to get their £400 support payments – the money was either taken off their monthly payment, sent directly to their bank account or applied as credit to their bill or meter.”
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