As temperatures drop, bills rise
but you may be due help with your heating, says Paul Lewis
The Warn Home Discount is £150 and is taken off one winter electricity bill by your supplier. The scheme runs in England and Wales and, slightly differently, in Scotland. In Northern Ireland there is a different scheme called Affordable Warmth, for which you can find details on nihe.gov.uk.
The conditions to qualify in England and Wales were changed a couple of years ago, meaning the people who are entitled now fall into two groups.
The first is people over 66 who get pension credit. They should get the discount automatically, as the Department for Work and Pensions tells the energy companies who is on pension credit of the right sort. You qualify if you get what’s called the guarantee credit element of pension credit. Check the letter you got when it was awarded. If you get guarantee credit, or both guarantee credit and savings credit, then you qualify. But if you only get savings credit and no guarantee credit (or it is £0.00) you do not qualify automatically. Instead, you may be eligible in the second group.
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The second group is working age people and pensioners who are not in the first group. You have to fulfil two conditions. First, you must be getting a means-tested benefit such as Universal Credit, tax credits, income support, or just the savings credit of pension credit. Second, your home must be hard to heat. That is worked out by the Government based on data it holds on the age, type and size of homes – but it admits it may get this wrong.
There is an eligibility checker at gov.uk if you search “warm home discount”. If that says “no”, but you are on a means-tested benefit and believe you should qualify, call the Warm Home Discount helpline for free on 0800 030 9322.
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People with a pre-payment meter qualify equally with others. Your energy supplier can tell you how the discount will be paid. There is also a scheme for people living in mobile homes, but they have to apply at charisgrants.com/partners/park-homes.
In Scotland, the first group is the same as England and Wales. But people in the second group have to claim the discount, and eligibility is
slightly different due to suppliers. Contact your energy provider, or see mygov.scot/help-energy-bills.