By Susanna Twidale<\/p>\n
LONDON, May 11 (Reuters) – A government scheme to clear 500 million pounds of energy debt for some of Britain’s poorest households \u200chas yet to launch, as industry warns total arrears could reach \u200c7 billion pounds ($9.5 billion) by year-end.<\/p>\n
The delay comes as ministers face mounting pressure over the cost of \u200bliving, with energy bills expected to rise in July.<\/p>\n
Energy watchdog Ofgem announced the Debt Relief Scheme last October and had hoped it would be launched in early 2026.<\/p>\n
But before it can take effect, parliament must pass legislation allowing energy suppliers and \u200cgovernment departments to share data \u2060identifying which benefit-receiving households would be eligible for help – a process that could take months.<\/p>\n
The government is still at an earlier \u2060stage, consulting on whether to expand those data-sharing powers in the first place.<\/p>\n
“We are carefully considering responses to our consultation on expanding data sharing powers, which would allow \u200bfor \u200bthe delivery of an energy debt relief \u200bscheme, and will set out our \u200cnext steps in due course,” a government spokesperson said via email, adding that ministers were determined to tackle the energy debt crisis and support households.<\/p>\n
Ofgem, which says it is ready to launch the scheme as soon as approvals are granted, has put the onus on ministers to move.<\/p>\n
“We’re working hard to get this \u200cright with government but ultimately this goes beyond \u200bOfgem. Ministers need to weigh up the \u200bcosts and benefits,” an Ofgem spokesperson \u200bsaid via email.<\/p>\n
Industry group Energy UK estimates consumer debts at \u200caround 5.5 billion pounds and said \u200bthis is likely to \u200breach 7 billion pounds by the end of the year if no action is taken.<\/p>\n
“Without proper regulatory measures to help those already in debt, \u200band stop others from falling \u200cinto it, this crisis will only grow further,” Ned Hammond, Deputy \u200bDirector, Policy (Customers) at Energy UK, said in an email.<\/p>\n
($1 = 0.7357 pounds)<\/p>\n
(Reporting \u200bby Susanna Twidale, Editing by Louise Heavens)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Susanna Twidale LONDON, May 11 (Reuters) – A government scheme to clear 500 million pounds of energy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":953642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3090],"tags":[51,1700,35,72548,119885,941,16,15],"class_list":["post-953641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-energy","tag-government-departments","tag-government-spokesperson","tag-ofgem","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116558628852306177","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=953641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/953642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=953641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=953641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=953641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}