Thank you for contacting me about the Energy Bills Support Scheme and people with Parkinson’s disease.
The Energy Bills Support Scheme provides a £400 non-repayable discount to eligible households to help with their energy bills over 2022/23. The discount is applied to your monthly household electricity bill for six months, starting in October 2022.
Although the Government is not currently planning to increase the £400 discount, it recognises that the rising cost of living has presented additional financial challenges to those with long-term health conditions and disabilities like Parkinson’s disease. The Government has introduced a range of other support measures for which people with Parkinson’s disease may be eligible.
If individuals have extra costs arising from Parkinson’s disease, they may qualify for disability benefits such as Personal Independence Payment (PIP). During the Autumn Statement 2022, the Chancellor announced that the Government will provide a further Disability Cost-of-Living Payment of £150 in 2023/24 to people in receipt of extra-cost disability benefits like PIP or Disability Living Allowance (DLA). This is in addition to the £150 payment for recipients of disability benefits in 2022 already announced as part of the Cost-of-Living package in May.
These payments can be received alongside other Cost-of-Living Payments for households on means-tested benefits, namely the £650 payment announced in May 2022 and the additional £900 payment announced during the Autumn Statement. Individuals who have limited or no ability to work because of Parkinson’s disease and are in receipt of means-tested benefits, such as income-related Employment and Support Allowance or the Universal Credit Health top-up, are eligible for this support.
Those living with Parkinson’s disease can also benefit from other forms of non-means-tested support which the Government is providing to assist with UK households’ energy bills. In addition to the Energy Bills Support Scheme, the Energy Price Guarantee limits the price that suppliers can charge customers for units of gas and electricity. Moreover, the £150 Council Tax rebate will mean that all households in Council Tax bands A-D will receive a rebate; 99 per cent of eligible households have already received this.
I note that you have called for the £400 rebate to be increased by £1,200. The additional support that I have outlined above totals £2000. This figure does not include the extra savings that households will receive through the Energy Price Guarantee or following the news that pensions and benefits will be uprated by 10.1 per cent from April 2023, in line with inflation.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.