Posts shared thousands of times on Facebook claim that anyone with less than 4 credit on a prepayment energy meter (also known as a pay-as-you-go meter) and is struggling financially, is eligible for two free fuel vouchers a year, worth 49 each.

This is inaccurate. The post claims that low-income families or people in receipt of benefits can “phone and ask for a fuel voucher”, but does not specify which number people should ring for help.

A spokesperson for the Fuel Bank Foundation told Full Fact that the claims made in the post were false, adding that inaccurate posts on social media such as these had led to a large volume of calls from people who had been misled into contacting the organisation directly for help.

They said: “I’ve never come across anything where you can just phone up and say ‘can I have fifty quid to keep my lights on please?’ These things don’t exist.”

A search for the vouchers on Google returns a PDF leaflet from the Fuel Bank Foundation, offering a 49 fuel voucher. However, the spokesperson told us that while the voucher is genuine, it would only be given to people who had already had their needs independently assessed by a third party such as a local authority and food bank, and was not valid for use by the general population.

A spokesperson for Centrica, the owner of British Gas, also told us that the claims made about the 49 vouchers are not correct.

They added that energy suppliers may offer emergency utility vouchers to customers with prepaid...

Read Full Story: https://fullfact.org/economy/fuel-bank-voucher-49/