warm home discount scheme

A question about : warm home discount scheme

if you qualified for the warm home Ј120 fuel rebate discount this year(2011/12)a reminder that unless you qualified automatically then you will have to re-apply for 2012/13(Ј130)

the scheme runs for 4 years,and has to be applied for each year,so after april 6th 2012 contact your supplier to register again.

all payments for 2011/12 should be made before the end of march,and if it puts your account in credit you can ask for a refund,or lower monthly direct debits if you prefer

Best answers:

• Paid by the end of March. Thanks for that, I qualified automatically but haven't had it credited yet . . . I can trust EDF can't I?
• Hi just to let you know I called BG today because I hadn't heard anything and my payment has been released yesterday. So I should get it either Saturday or Tuesday when I top up my meter. xxxxxxx
• Thanks for this reminder. I got this years from Southern Electric on monday, it was added to my key meter automatically.
• If you didn't qualify automatically but will for 2012/13, it will be wise to check as to whether it will benefit you, if you are already on your companies social tariff (BG=Essentials). Most of the big 6 I believe are keeping these tariffs goings if you are already on it, until the end of 2013.
  So you need to work out whether or not the rebate from the warm home discount scheme will outway the benefits of the reduced prices of the social tariff you are on. In my personal case, I am better off staying on the Essentials tariff, to move to the warm home discount scheme will make me around Ј300 a year worse off
  You have to remember to move to the warm home discount scheme, you will be removed from the social tariff and have to go onto a more expensive tariff overall. Due to the price differences you could be a lot worse off. I have spent a great deal of time and effort looking into this and it is fact.
  I devised a spreadsheet which takes into account my annual usage (which changes little from year to year). I tested the spreadsheet against last years bills and it is accurate to within Ј2 over the course of the year, so it is definately correct. This demonstrated that for me, moving to the warm home scheme will cost me just over Ј300 a year more based on current prices.
  Sadly a lot of people are swayed by the fact that on paper it looks like you are being given Ј100 for the current year and rising each year of the four years it runs. The fact is you probably benefit by more than that from the discounted prices of the social tariffs there are/were.
  There will only ever be one winner and it will always be the energy companies. So please check before you jump! the grass isn't always greener on the other side.
• I was with Swalec on the social tariff and was told about a month ago that this has stopped a year ago and I should not have been receiving it still (prepayment meter so their fault they didn't change it). They changed me onto the normal rate (16ppu) and I have just swapped to Scottish power who are a bit cheaper( just over 12ppu). The home front discount would not even scratch the surface of the difference between the tariffs and we are too late to apply for this year so will have to apply from 6th April for 2012/2013.
• This is the sad thing about this switch, thousands of people are falling into the trap of seeing the Ј100 rebate and thinking that will automatically make them better off.
  It is a bit like dangling a carrot. It all sounds great in principle but in reality a lot of vulnerable people are going to end up a lot worse off. The whole scheme is gold mine for the energy companies. I dread the day that British Gas tell me the essentials tariff is closed and I have to move to the warm home discount scheme. My energy costs are going to increase by over Ј300 a year or Ј25 a month and that is after the annual rebate!!!
  If you are currently on your energy companies Social Tariff, please do the maths and work it out as you could be much worse off by switching to this scheme. If you are then sit tight until they force you off the Social Tariff!!
• @simom7685
  Think you've got your wires crossed.
  The thread is regarding the warm home Ј120 fuel rebate discount, referred to in the OP and applies to people on certain benefits. Nothing to do with the warm home discount scheme and nothing to do with changing tariffs.
  
• I think it might be an idea if this sticky wasnt used to discuss tariffs etc in general,as its meant purely to remind people to re-register for warm home scheme for 2012/13(or indeed to register for the first time),if they dont qualify to get it without claiming
  thanks
• To try and avoid confusion ANGUK post number 10 and I are correct. The Ј120 rebate is the Warm Home Discount Scheme that started this year and runs for the next 4 years. It replaces all Social Tariffs such as Essentials on British Gas.
  You will be moved from the social tariff onto a standard tariff unless you ask for any of the others available from your supplier. In the case of British Gas, they have now 'simplified' their tariffs. There used to be over 40 different ones, there are now 3. The standard, the online and the fixed price. All of these are considerably more expensive than the Essentials tariff that they have now ended.
  Yes you may qualify for the automatic annual rebate as a result of the switch but in most cases you will end up worse off, particularly if your household is all electric like mine.
  I appreciate that this thread may be to remind people to apply for the Warm Home scheme but I think it is equally important to make sure that people understand what that will mean to them financially. The annual rebate is a carrot, people see the Ј120 and think great, thanks very much but when you are paying more per unit accross the year as a result of accepting the carrot, you need to understand that it will not cover the extra you will pay for your energy as a result.
• British Gas told me they have moved a certain number of people over from Essentials as a trial by random selection and the rest are going to be moved during the next year.
  You will get informed when they are going to change you over and will then have the option of any of the tariffs they (or anyone else) operates and can apply with evidence of income to get onto the Warm Home Scheme.
  The person I spoke to said nearly all customers "on the trial switch over" are finding it more expensive, even with the Ј120 rebate and most of them are complaining.
  His advice - don't move before you are made to switch
• This is going to lead to a very sad state of affairs for very many people I am afraid, myself included. I didn't fall into the automatic category for 2011/12 but would have qualified had I chosen to apply under my disability grounds. However having done the maths I knew exactly what this was going to cost me.
  I have done the calculations tonight using British Gas Online Energy Tariff which is now their cheapest. The results are calculated using my previous 12 months usage and current prices;
  Essentials Tariff = Ј890.93 or Ј74.22 per month
  Online Energy = Ј1,306.07 less rebate of Ј120 = Ј1,186.07 or Ј98.84 per month
  This is an increase of Ј295.91 per year or
  Ј24.62 a month
  an increase of over 33%
  When I joined the Essentials programme, I qualified bacause I was disabled and in fuel poverty. I am still disabled, still in fuel poverty and now expected to cover a 33% increase but don't forget I will get the Ј120 rebate............... should we have a party???
  In 2010 my usage was over 2000kw/h more than it is now, it cost me Ј596.11 for the year.
  In 2011 I implemented savings and cut those 2000 units from my usage and it cost me Ј890.93 an increase of Ј294.82. The cynic in me says there is no way BG could could get away with that sort of increase again, so they get together re hash their social tariffs into this new scheme, dangle a carrot of Ј120 a year rebate and bang up goes my costs by Ј294.82 again. A real term increase of 100% in 2 years
  This is the reality of the Warm Home Discount Scheme not just for me but everybody, not just with British Gas but ALL of the suppliers. I do not know how they can be allowed to get away with it. I feel a letter to my MP going off, for all the good it will do.
• John what area do you live in to get low rates like that? I am in North Yorkshire. I suffered rises on the unit rates like this over the last 2 years which is how my annual cost has doubled over that time. It really is not right what the energy companies are getting away with here but I suspect there will be nothing gets done about it, as usual.
  It is a bit like motor insurance I think, if you drive you have to have insurance, which gives the providers license to charge whatever they want basically and there is nothing we can do about it. The really sad thing with these energy rises though, is come next winter I can see a lot of older people and vulnerable ones dying due to not being able to afford to heat their homes. You can really understand sometimes why people are having to make a choice between eating or heating!
• I've just hunted out my annual electricity and gas statement. I'm with British Gas for both and on the Essentials tariff, I also have pay as you go meters (rented house, can't change them).
  From September 2010 to September 2011 I used 5,185.98 kWh of electricity. The statement says that they forecast my costs for the next 12 months will be approx Ј608.87 on Essential.
  For September 2010 to September 2011 I used 9,036.97kWh of gas. They forecast that my cost over the next 12 months will be Ј443.77 on Essential.
  I've looked on the British Gas site and I think because I'm on pay-as-you-go I'm going to be stuck with Standard tariff when they take me off Essentials. I've done a comparison to see how my costs are going to change.
  Electricity
  Essentials - 18.749p Tier 1 and 9.654p on Tier 2 per kWh
  Standard payg - 24.670p Tier 1 and 11.400p Tier 2 per kWh
  Gas
  Essentials - 6.185 Tier 1, 3.601 Tier 2
  Standard payg - 8.748 Tier 1, 4.029 Tier 2
  By my very rough calculations (I can't work out the separate tiers etc) it's going to cost me about Ј200 more for my gas and electricity when they take me off Essentials. So even with the Ј120 rebate I'm still going to be worse off. And it will be even worse for people who are all electric.