Energy bills: Ministers approve one-off £200 support payment

Stormont ministers have approved a plan to provide one-off payments of £200 to people needing support with energy costs.

Communities Minister Deirdre Hargey proposed the scheme to help about 280,000 people in Northern Ireland.

The executive backed the proposal at its meeting on Thursday.

Those who are eligible for the payment will have to have been paid one or more of five qualifying benefits during the week beginning 13 December 2021.

The Department for Communities said the qualifying benefits were:

No application process will be needed, and payments will be issued automatically to individuals rather than households.

Ms Hargey said she hoped the first payments would be made next month, but there were a number of steps in the process.

The scheme needs new legislation to be drafted and passed in the assembly, and it also requires input from the Department of Work and Pensions.

Ms Hargey said her department wanted to get through these steps "as quickly as possible".

"I now have to lay draft affirmative legislation that gives me the power to do that", she said

"As soon as I can get that done, we are engaging with the Department of Work and Pensions who will manually make these payments on their computer systems.

"I'm looking at over the next period of weeks and going into February for those payments to start to reach bank accounts", she added.

The scheme has been welcomed by Age NI.

But the charity said it was concerned some older people in need would be excluded because they were not on a qualifying benefit.

In a statement the charity said: "We worry for those older people who have just about been managing up until now.

"Pensioners who have been getting by on a modest pension income have little or no leeway to absorb the impact of up to 50% fuel cost increases".

"Northern Ireland needs a longer term strategy on energy and a task force dedicated to tackling this issue all year round. It's time to stop responding to a crisis every winter and leaving vulnerable older people stuck in the cold".

First Minister Paul Givan said energy payments could begin in March "at the latest" but he hoped they would start sooner.

"People have faced the very real choice of heating or eating and this is our contribution to that," he said.

The scheme is expected to cost about £55m, with some of the funding expected to come from a reallocation exercise known as a monitoring round.

The remainder is set to come from what is known as a Barnett consequential - additional money issued to the devolved administrations when a spending decision is made for England.

The move by the Department for Communities to draw up another scheme to tackle rising energy costs comes amid concerns about a smaller support fund already in place.

A smaller fuel poverty scheme worth £2m opened last week but has been capped at a daily limit with some people struggling to access the online application portal.

On Wednesday, Ms Hargey said the cap was to ensure the funding lasted until March, when the scheme is due to close.

But Alliance assembly member Kellie Amstrong said the "extraordinarily tight" criteria for the scheme, administered by Bryson Charitable Group, had not been properly promoted, meaning some people were potentially applying when they may not be eligible.

It is understood that people who have applied for the smaller fuel scheme can still access this new scheme, providing they meet its criteria.