The Prime Minister told BBC Radio Kent this morning that the government was “making sure that nobody is paying fuel bills of more than £2,500”, and made a similar comment to BBC Radio Leeds [8:07], saying “through the energy price guarantee the maximum will be £2,500”.
This is false, and a mistake the Prime Minister has made repeatedly. Full Fact last wrote about the issue when Ms Truss made the claim on CNN on 25 September. After that claim, Full Fact wrote to the Prime Minister, asking her to acknowledge the error and ensure she described the policy accurately in future.
At other points during her round of interviews on BBC local radio stations this morning, Ms Truss said £2,500 would be the maximum “typical” fuel bill, which is more accurate, though potentially still confusing as it doesn’t explicitly mention usage.
The government’s Energy Price Guarantee does not make sure that nobody pays more than £2,500 for their energy bills. Instead, it caps the price of a unit of gas and electricity—meaning that the typical household with average usage will spend £2,500.
Suggesting there is a hard cap on bills risks vulnerable people thinking they can use as much energy as they want for £2,500, according to MoneySavingExpert founder Martin Lewis.
In fact, if you use more energy than average, your bills will be more than £2,500 over the year.
I raised this as a separate thread because it’s not only “vulnerable people” who have been confused by LT’s repeated statements - others that I have spoken to have been led astray by misleading statements from PM Truss.
Hopefully, the statement is now clear and people should continue to monitor and control their energy usage.