Payments of £30 to help with electricity bills 'should start to become available from July'
A scheme to help people with their electricity bills is due to kick in from July, it has been reported.
A statutory instrument to that effect has now been tabled in Parliament (that being a legal mechanism for enacting a policy, short of an actual law), paving the way for three payments of £30 to households to be made in three successive years.
BBC NI’s business editor John Campbell has reported that this now means “the reduction will be given for the first time in July”.
The Department for the Economy, headed by Sinn Fein’s Caoimhe Archibald, had previously announced its intention this month to make the scheme happen, using an £81m pot of cash from the Treasury in London.
However, there followed a row between the DUP and Sinn Fein over the scheme, with the former accusing minister Archibald of “dithering”.
Ms Archibald in turn hit out at “false assertions”, saying “the support cannot make its way to consumers until the Westminster Parliament amends the Energy Prices Act 2022”.
In the wake of the BBC report today, SDLP leader Claire Hanna said: “It is obvious that £30 for every household will not provide the support needed for those who are really struggling.
"This risks a situation where many who do not need help receive it, while those who do are left with very little.
“The SDLP recognises the logistical challenges around means-tested support and the need to act quickly, but it is clear that the current proposal will do little to address this crisis.
"If this scheme is to have any real impact, it must be refocused on those most in need and delivered in a way that actually addresses the pressures facing households.”
Separately, the government has pledged £17m to help people in Northern Ireland with the cost of home heating oil – though it remains unclear when this will kick in or how it will work.
Sinn Fein has said this could only equate to £35 per household, if spread out evenly among all such households.
Westminster will need to “reconsider again what support is available” for Northern Ireland if energy bills continue to rise, the leader of the DUP Gavin Robinson said today.
Mr Robinson told reporters on the Shankill Road in Belfast today there is no indication that the “burden” of higher energy prices “is going to ease in the next day or week or even month”.
He said his party “would like to use this money [the £81m] in a more targeted way, in a more efficient way, and not solely for electricity”, and the feasibility of that “was privately indicated to me on Thursday last week by the Prime Minister”.
He added: “If this continues on month after month, and pressure continues to grow for families, Westminster will need to reconsider again what support is available.”