You will have seen in the news, that the UK is facing an 'energy crisis' driven by a record rise in global energy prices, with every household across the country facing a similar challenge. The Ofgem price cap is predicted to increase by over 80% in October, a potential increase of over 180% in the last year.  

There are several contributing factors that are causing this rise. The cost of wholesale energy has been rapidly rising primarily due to the war in Ukraine, varying weather conditions and the ongoing impacts of Covid-19.

You can read more about the causes here in our blog.

A new Energy Price Guarantee has been announced to provide households with short-term support with the cost of energy.

The Energy Price Guarantee will ensure that a typical household in Great Britain pays an average £2,500 a year on their energy bill, from 1 October 2022 until 31st March 2023. This Energy Bill Guarantee limits the amount you can be charged per unit of gas or electricity so your exact saving will be influenced by how much energy you consume. The level of discount people receive also depends on people’s tariff price.

You do not need to apply for the Energy Price Guarantee and there’s no need to contact us.

This is in addition to the £400 Energy Bills Support Scheme. This will continue to be paid from October.

If your package with us includes energy, the £400 EBSS discount will be automatically applied via a deduction in your monthly direct debit or a refund. In line with the government guidance, the grant will be issued monthly as £66 per household in October and November, and £67 from December to March. The grant will be split equally between your group, for example, a group of 4 will see a government grant deduction in their October payment of £16.50 per person.

In response to the energy crisis, the UK Government has introduced energy price support to shield households and businesses from spiralling prices. You may be aware that, under the Energy Prices Act 2022, the Government requires that energy price support is passed on in a just and reasonable way to end users, this includes the support from the Energy Price Guarantee, Energy Bills Support Scheme, and/or the Energy Bills Relief Scheme to you, our customers, as the intended beneficiaries of the relevant schemes.

Here we set out how UniHomes is ensuring that the support is passed through to its customers:

• We are already applying the £400 Energy Bill Support Scheme discount in full to each household’s account. The discount will either be deducted from your monthly charges or paid directly into your bank account. If paid directly into your bank account, it could be in a one-off payment or in monthly instalments, depending on how you pay your charges to UniHomes. We have already notified you of the payment method which applies to your account.
  
  
• If you are a student, the Energy Price Guarantee has enabled energy suppliers (and therefore us) to shield you from a significant price rise on the energy aspect of your charges. You will have already received an email from us in September which sets out your prices for 2022-23 and how we have calculated your charges in light of both the Energy Price Guarantee and the Energy Bill Support Scheme.

Further guidance on the legislation, eligibility and the responsibilities of intermediaries is available here. Please raise any concerns you have about the pass-through support provided by emailing hello@splitthebills.co.uk in the first instance. In law, end users can recover benefits they are due as a civil debt if not provided as soon as reasonably practicable. This means end users will be able to pursue recovery of benefits through civil proceedings.