news Half a million vulnerable households miss out on help with energy bills | UK cost of living crisis

Up to half a million of the UK's most vulnerable families have been left without government help to pay their energy bills since October, with an estimated 1.3m vouchers for homes

with prepayment meters either lost, delayed or unclaimed.Charities and MPs are calling on ministers to intervene, with Labor saying the government has been warned “time and time

again” that those on prepayment meters are not getting enough support.Households have missed out on an estimated £80m of government help during the two months since the scheme

launched, with about 1.3m vouchers not redeemed, according to Guardian analysis of data from the top-up company PayPoint and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial

Strategy.All households in the UK are meant to receive £400 this winter under the energy bills support scheme, which Rishi Sunak announced in February when he was chancellor.

Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, energy prices have soared, pushing inflation to its highest level in 41 years, causing hardship for millions as the cold weather sets

in.Families who pay by direct debit will receive a credit to their account each month from October to March, without having to do anything. But the 2m homes with traditional

prepayment meters – typically the poorest households in the country – should automatically receive a £66 voucher from their supplier in the post, which can be used when

topping up.However, charities are sounding the alarm, saying many homes have not received vouchers. Readers who contacted the Guardian said they had made multiple requests to their

energy suppliers asking to be sent vouchers, and in some cases were still waiting. One mother in London said the delays meant she was unable to heat her home for weeks as mold grew

in her 12-year-old son's bedroom. Other readers in London, Carlisle and Sunderland said they had spent hours on the phone to their energy suppliers trying to find out where their

vouchers were. Others living in homes that have been split into studio flats, each with their own sub-meter, said separate households were being forced to share one voucher.A

quarter of the expected vouchers for the first months of the scheme have not been claimed, according to PayPoint, which handles top-up payments for about 750,000 households and

shops across the UK. PayPoint said redemptions for October were running at 75%, and November redemptions were running at 63%.There were 2.1m vouchers due to be delivered to

households, according to separate government data published last month. Extrapolating the PayPoint data, this suggests 500,000 households who should have benefited from government