People who rent their homes could miss out on the government’s £400 energy rebate, a charity has warned.

Tenants whose bills are included within their rent payments could potentially miss out on the £400 payment with around half a million renters affected.

Renters will rely on their landlords to pass on the cash as the government tries to ease the burden of rising energy costs and the ongoing cost of living crisis.

Tenants rights charity Shelter warned: “It is unfair that those at the very sharp end of this crisis could miss out on this much-needed support."

The government has said: "We expect landlords to pass on the discount received to each tenant.”

The National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) backed the government saying where a landlord was acting as an energy reseller, "they should be passing on the savings to their tenant in line with [the regulator] Ofgem's requirements".

Gillian Cooper, head of energy policy at Citizens Advice, said: "We're worried that renters could fall through the cracks and miss out on extra cash."

Dan Wilson Craw, deputy director of campaign group Generation Rent, said: "A lot of landlords have already raised the rent to take account of higher energy bills and there's no easy way for tenants to ask them to pass on the £400 grant if they don't want to - threatening to move out is one approach but that is difficult when rent on a new property could be much higher."

Households will start receiving money off their energy bills from October, with the discount made in six instalments.

A discount of £66 will be applied to energy bills in October and November, rising to £67 each month from December through to March 2023.

Further Government support includes a £650 one-off cost-of-living payment for around eight million households on means-tested benefits.