£600 Northern Ireland energy bill support payments: UK Government aiming to get 'cash out' system ready for January

That is according to energy minister Graham Stuart, who said in the House of Commons yesterday he had met with energy suppliers last week and determined their systems are “not ready”.

He said: “Their systems do not allow the dispensing, the cashing out and I don’t want to see a stranded credit to an electricity account that people can’t access.

“I’ve insisted that we find a way to make sure that people can cash that out and use it to meet their heating oil bills this winter. That is my insistence.”

Mr Stuart said he is “determined to find a way to ensure that we can allow cashing out this winter” but does not see, “given the situation”, how “we are going to be able to stand that up before Christmas”.

He added: “But we are aiming to stand that up in January if we possibly can. That is my aspiration and my aim and is what I’m seeking to achieve.”

Labour have criticised the government’s delays. Shadow business minister Kerry McCarthy said: “It is not good enough to let this issue drift.”

She said: “The Northern Ireland Utility Regulator said in August that he believed there was a simple mechanism to get the money out and he had been left frustrated that the Government hadn’t taken this forward.”