To suggest something to do with your £400 from the government towards your fuel bill

[shufflestep]

If you happen to be in the lucky position (as we are) to not need the £400 from the government towards your fuel bills, and to think that the government has been totally immoral in the way they are handling the cost of living crisis, can I suggest that you donate the £400 to the fuel bank foundation? We heard about it via our local council on Facebook and they give grants to those struggling on prepayment meters. As a registered charity we were able to donate the £400 with gift aid, so more than the £400 we will be given will go to aid those who really need it.

I'd be surprised if many people are in the position to just give away £400

A lot of energy companies are applying the £400 towards bills.

Lots of people won't be able to afford this, no. For those that can it's a lovely idea though.

Good shout OP😊

Doesn't it go straight to the energy provider and applied to your bill?

It goes right into your energy account so there's no way this will work.

I’ve had an email from my supplier saying they are reducing my direct debit by £67, so I couldn’t, even if I wanted to OP.

Oh I get it now

You mean donate £400 you have already in leui of the money

There should be more people like you OP.

A lovely idea if you can afford it. Sadly, we can’t, we can’t afford to have our own heating in let alone pay for others’ 😢.

Yeah I thought it was being applied by energy suppliers as rebates on account

I had an E mail today telling me that my energy supplier will credit my account with a proportion of the £400 for each of the next 6 months.

I am in a tariff which I fixed in April 21 and which lasts until April 23, so I am not affected by the current energy price crisis. It feels very wrong that I am getting the money.

I currently have no income due to the aftermath of the pandemic so am struggling for other reasons, but I might well divert money saved on my bills to the fuel bank.

If it's being directly applied to your bill then it is still possible to just make a £400 donation using a debit card, bank transfer or cash. It doesn't have to be the exact same £400 that is given to you by the govt.

We're donating the equivalent to the food bank as we're lucky that the fuel increases are having limited impact on us.

Can people really not see that you send the money you save to fuel bank?

@ListenLinda is that Octopus by any chance as I had the same.

We get the money into our bank account

Exactly! I have reduced our DD from October onwards and will be donating the money I save.

Good idea - will send some of mine that way

Brave of you to assume I have £400 in my bank

I am on a fixed rate which is a little bit more than before (£130->£160) and can afford everything so far ok so have already given 1/2 of mine to my niece and her dh who are expecting their first dc in December and struggling, will send over the other half nearer Xmas.

I am skint and so I donate just £5pcm to this. It's all I can afford.

Mine's the same. If you wanted to do it then this actually makes it easier as it frees up £67 that would normally go out of your bank account.

We’re with Octopus, we’ve just asked them to leave our DD as it is. We don’t want it reduced because, for now, we can afford it so we’d like the £400 to be there just incase we have another Beast from the East situation.

Lovely idea, OP. Unfortunately not many people will be in your situation.

My power company are paying it towards my bill in £60 increments, I don't get it as cash.

You could trf the £66/67per month to the charity, if you don't have £400 up front)

It's reduced my direct debit to just £23 for six months, but I am on a low income so need the money for the rising cost of food and other things.