Energy Loan

[SIRandyraven]

I made a life error of working all my life and ending up retired in a band E semi decent house, so now classified as rich by the government it seems.

With reference to the £200 loan. Is everyone getting this loan regardless and then have to pay it back over errr 5 years at £40 a year?
Can you opt out if you don’t want it?

We fixed our energy costs for 2 years in August 2021 and basically immune from the increases until the deal runs out.

[pastafreak]

Hmmm...maybe it will be like the warm home discount and suddenly appear as credit on the electric meter. Better if divided between gas and electric...but I'm sure that won't happen.

[Buenchico]

Pasta:
Some older meters only function 'locally'. i.e. they monitor how much gas or electricity has passed through them and know how much credit has been added to them but none of that information is sent directly to the energy company.

Newer meters transmit signals to and from the energy company, with that company knowing how much credit is on the meter and with that company being able to add further credit to the meter. If your meter 'magically' gets the Warm Home Discount amount added to it, it must be one of the newer types and I'd expect something similar to happen with the £200 rebate.

[SIRandyraven]

Wonder how many billions will not be paid back.
In this case I presume the government has offloaded the debt recovery to the energy companies ie. AnswerBank Power has 1 million customers ,so the government loans them £200 million.
Then each year takes back £40 million from the energy company.
Thus it is down to AnswerBank Power to collect the £200 debt from its client base.
Guess the debt moves with you if you switch companies?