January 18, 2023
January 18, 2023
Meta: The Government has announced plans for a new typeof energy support for small businesses. You can get free energy dispute advice foryour business if you have fewer than 50 employees.
The new support is for small businesses who have 50 or less employees, offering free specialist support for disputes with their energy suppliers from the Energy Ombudsman. The support offered will be relating to energy disputes over energy bills and energy supply, how an energy product or service has been sold and wider customer service problems.
At the moment, the service is currently only available for businesses of up to 10 employees and households, with the further support for slightly larger businesses coming soon!
The support came about from a recent survey by Ofgem, who found that 94% of respondents, including business organisations, consumer groups and suppliers, said that they would be happy with the support and welcome it completely.
Energy Consumers and Affordability Minister Amanda Solloway said:
“This government has always stood by businesses, and we want to ensure they are getting proper support and service in dealing with energy suppliers.
“That’s why we’re proposing expanding the reach of the Energy Ombudsman to cover an extra 200,000 businesses, allowing them to access free, impartial advice and resolve issues with their supplier without the need for an expensive trip to court.”
You can find a guide to the new energy dispute support here; you will be able to find how to receive the support and ore details about the support itself.
There has been various support schemes throughout the energy crisis, to help businesses of all sizes to be able to afford the extremely high energy prices since 2021.
One previous scheme was called the ‘Energy Bill Relief Scheme’. The aim of this scheme was to help any kind of business and other non-domestic customers afford the extremely high energy prices at the time.
Energy prices were reduced by the following amounts:
The Energy Bill Discount Scheme (EBDS) replaced the energy bill relief scheme this year, running from April 2023 to March 2024.
This scheme offered eligible businesses the following rates:
The more energy you use, the more you will pay.
The recently unveiled plans for a new kind of support for small businesses will help greatly to deal with any sort of energy dispute or some other issues businesses may have with their energy. The consultation closes at midday on 31 January 2024.
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