NI homes going without heating due to energy support delays, MPs told

Northern Ireland households are disadvantaged compared to their UK counterparts , a group of MPs has been told.

This is because they are yet to receive a universal energy payment, the NI Affairs Committee heard on Wednesday.

The issue of when the £600 energy support payment will be issued was also raised at the committee.

A £400 payment was initially announced in May to help homes with gas and electricity price hikes.

People in Great Britain started receiving the payments in October.

Northern Ireland has a separate energy market and it remains unclear when these payments will be made here.

A further £200 was also announced last month because of the proportion of homes in Northern Ireland which use home heating oil.

While some politicians had suggested the support would reach Northern Ireland in November, it is yet to arrive.

'No support to date'

"That's a universal payment that households in Northern Ireland haven't been able to access yet," Jamie Miller from National Energy Action told MPs.

"I believe that means they are currently disadvantaged to their UK counterparts, particularly as we now enter December.

"The weather is cold, it was 0C overnight in Northern Ireland and there's a weather warning in place this week.

"There's people out there right now that haven't had any support to date that are going to have to put their heating on, find the money to do that and it's going to be hard for them."

Mr Miller said there had been a number of people who got in touch with his organisation because they were short of money.

The committee was also told people in Northern Ireland were having to go without heating.

Peter McClenaghan from the Consumer Council said people were increasingly anxious

"I would say the greater anxiety is just that people are having to go without heat at the moment or without adequate heat because the money hasn't arrived," the Consumer Council's Peter McClenaghan said.

"There's anxiety about whether the money will come, but then there's just the greater anxiety of living in a cold home," he added.

MPs were told the expectation the support would arrive before Christmas had left people feeling disappointed.

'Being let down'

Kevin Higgins, from Advice NI, said people had a sense of being let down.

He said his advisers were more frequently having to signpost people to crisis support.

"It's crisis support in terms of food or fuel or warm banks," Mr Higgins said.

"Those crisis interventions are our focus and it's a real shame the executive is down as those are real localised interventions.

"We need a local minister and executive in place to be able to make sure the best local supports are in place to help people when they most need.