Energy Bills Rebate: Artificial Intelligence
Question
Justin Madders
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether he has made an assessment of the adequacy of the accuracy of decisions for applications to the Energy Support Fund made by the automated decision making process.
Answer
Automated decision-making was utilised within the application process for the Energy Bills Support Scheme Alternative Funding (EBSS AF) to identify any applications for households which have already received support either through the EBSS AF or the Energy Bills Support Scheme. This helped the department to process a large number of cases at once, ensuring eligible applicants could receive their support as soon as possible, whilst protecting public funds against fraud. Any applicant who believes that their application has been incorrectly rejected due to this process can call our contact centre helpline for further assistance.