Help for Low Income customers

I know you say that you do not want to pay by Direct Debit but it is the cheapest way to pay and it also would give you access to fixed rates that could shield you from rate increases over the period of your fix.

Appreciate your thoughts there, but I’ve never been one to pay direct debit as, with a busy lifestyle, it’s too easy to forget what payments you have going out and when.
I like to be in control of my outgoings, by paying my bills manually as soon as they come in.

Not only that, but a lot of people don’t realise companies are charged fees to collect payments via Direct Debit.

On the tariff side, I’d still like to know if OVO offer a cheaper tariff for low income customers.

I’ve just filled in an income and expenses form for Thames Water, as they offer cheaper, more affordable rates for those on UC or low income.

‘Social Tariffs’ for energy were phased out in the UK in 2011, they were replaced by the Warm Home Discount scheme.
See: https://www.moneysupermarket.com/gas-and-electricity/social-tariffs/

(If you are getting Universal credit then you should have got the £150 WHD this year credited against the electricity bill for the property).

If you are struggling to pay your energy bills then OVO may be able to help if you contact them.

They can offer repayment plans, energy saving kit, and even direct financial support.

You can read about the available extra help here:

https://www.ovoenergy.com/extra-support

Hey ​@DaveThorn76,

I'm sorry to hear that your mother has passed away. I can't imagine how difficult this must be for you.

You’ve had so great replies and information from Bendog and Nukecad so far! Bendog is correct in saying Direct Debit is usually the simplest and cheapest way to pay for your energy. This is because:

• You don’t have to remember to make payments each month – it’s all done automatically 

• You’ll get a cheaper rate if you’re on our variable Simpler Energy tariff

• You’ll pay the same every month for your energy, which can help with budgeting

• A Direct Debit spreads your energy costs evenly over the year, which means you’re less likely to have to pay more in winter

Nukecad has shared some helpful information about the Warm Home Discount! If you're on Universal Credit, you should receive a letter confirming that you're eligible. If you haven't seen it yet, don’t worry! You can easily reach out to them through their website for assistance. They’ll be happy to help you!

We also have a great article on the Forum that lists all the support available which i’ll link here:

I do hope this helps and if you’ve any further questions please let us know!  

Hi Chris,

Thank you for your kind words and advice.

The OVO account in my Mother’s name has now been switched to mine, and as she was already on the variable Simpler Energy tariff, I have stuck with that.

Direct Debits have never appealed to me and, being on a strict budget, I cannot afford any payments to bounce and incur any charges by my bank. I find it far, far easier to pay a certain amount each month by a direct card payment when I can. That way, I can usually keep my OVO account in credit when the bill is due, and usually have a £0 bill.

What I don’t understand at the moment is why my gas bill is still quite high, despite only having the heating on (just while it is still a little chilly) for an hour each in the morning and evening, and these days I only use the oven 2, maybe 3 times a week for a maximum 30/40 minutes at a time.

Are gas prices particularly high at the moment, as I don’t think I’m using anywhere near £60-odd worth of gas in a month, but the dials on the gas meter seriously rotate fast whenever the heating or oven is on!

One other thing, is Economy 7 still a thing?

Thanks again!

Could it be possible you have a gas leak? Could someone check your gas meter?

We had a small leak a couple of years ago, but it was a tiny one on the inspection valve on the meter, which was fixed within a day.
No, I don’t think there is a leak. I did ask someone about it, but they said that, on the last dial (in the red area) of the BK-G4 Meter that we have, it is normal for it to rotate that quickly when gas is in use.
 

In fact, I’ve just timed it.
The last digit dial takes around 4.5 to 5 seconds to move from one number to the next (from a 5 to a 6, for instance) when the radiators are switched on.

Does that sound normal to everyone?

Of course, what I am about to say regarding gas usage will depend on a number of things. First of all. I use gas for heating, hot water and we have a gas hob. Secondly, I use Hive controls for our gas usage and have Hive Thermostatic Radiator Valves on our radiators. This allows us to control the temperature for each room of the house, independently. We spend most of our time downstairs, so the temperature here is set higher than upstairs. Our heating is timed to come on at 6.30am and go off at 11pm. We now only heat our water when we are actually going to use it. In general, heating the water for around 30 minutes gives us enough hot water for two showers with enough left over for those things that cannot go into the dishwasher. A system like this allows flexibility as it is possible to boost the heating in an individual area if needed. Are you able to turn off the radiators in the rooms that you are not using? We have one room that is rarely used and so have the radiator in there on “frost control” which means that it will only come on if the temperature falls below around 7°C.

This shows my gas cost for 2025. My cost for January 2026 was £65.81. In January 2025 I used 1127.11 kWh and in January 2026 I used 1132.87 kWh. This shows that the difference in cost is, largely, due to increased prices rather than greatly increased usage. 

This is what a typical day for me looks like.

As you can see from this, most gas is used when the boiler first switches on in the morning. That day cost £2.18 (excluding standing charge and VAT). Opening the front or back doors for any length of time has an effect on how often the heating kicks in during the day too. Our highest total bill for the past few years has always been the January one. 

Have you checked the radiators in your house? When the heating is on, do they heat up throughout the radiator? For instance, is the top of the radiator colder than the rest? Have you checked if they need bleeding? Before we had to replace the boiler in September 2023, some of the radiators were, despite bleeding, not really working well. So, at the same time, we replaced the radiators as the additional cost was worth it. This shows the difference in usage for the first three months of the year, before and after these changes.

The other difference with our usage here shows the difference between what we were doing which was putting the heating on for a couple of hours in the morning and for four hours in the evening. We were also heating our water for an hour twice a day, every day. 

A lot of usage for heating is determined also by how well insulated your house is and by how efficient your hot water tank (if you have one like we do) is at conserving heat. We have added an insulated curtain to most rooms and keep the door from the living area (our downstairs is open-plan) to the hallway closed throughout the colder months to minimise heat going up the stairs. As pensioners, we are on a fixed income so we have had to use trial and error to try to make our home as energy efficient as we can. For our health, it is also important to keep warm.

Well, while my elderly Mother was still alive and living here, we had to keep the house and her warm, so the Heating was on almost constantly to keep the ambient temperature around a comfortable 23-24 degrees, meaning our monthly bills were quite high but because of her pension credit and disability allowances, easily affordable.

Since she went into care at the end of November and sadly passed away just 18 days later, I’m barely using the Heating or Gas oven, but I’m not seeing much of a drop in my bills and I don’t understand it.

I’ll give you some examples, bearing in mind, the beginning of December 2025 is when I stopped using the heating so much:

Our combined 2024 winter bills were - 

4 Nov 2024 - 3 Dec 2024 = £178.32

4 Dec 2024 - 3 Jan 2025 = £189.21

4 Jan 2025 - 3 Feb 2025 = £209.83

4 Feb 2025 - 4 March 2025 = £178.68

Bills didn’t drop into double figure amounts until our June-July statement.

In comparison, these were our Winter bills at the end of 2025 going into this year:

4 Nov 2025 - 3 Dec 2025 = £149.08

(After this bill, Mum is no longer at home, and heating was used far less)

4 Dec 2025 - 3 Jan 2026 = £170.85

Current bill 4 Jan 2026 - 3 Feb 2026 = £127.00

So, you can see a marked drop in usage, but looking at the statement, £73.50 of that last bill was for Gas usage alone.

I’m struggling to equate 2 hours of heating a day at non-peak times, and 3 x 30 minute uses of the oven per week, into £73.50p!

I would double check the bill - is it based on estimated usage?

If it is an estimate (rather than based on actual meter readings) then that estimate will be based on the same months usage last year, not on what you are using currently.

If/when you need to send in readings then to make sure that your bill is based on actual current use you should send in readings the day after your billing period ends.

Ie. If you billing period is the 24th to 23rd then send in new readings on the 24th. That way the bill will be for the full period with no estimated part.

Another point with gas central heating is you can turn the boiler temperature down so your radiators aren’t as hot. Try aiming for 60 degrees. That means the boiler won’t have to stop/start too often to keep the rooms at the target set on your thermostat. 

No, it’s usually estimated, but I now provide monthly meter readings a day or two before each bill is due, so that I can keep them as accurate as possible.
You advise meter reading the day AFTER the billing period ends?
Ok, I will try that for this month and submit new meter readings tomorrow, as my billing periods are from the 3rd to the 4th of the month.
See if anything changes.

Hey ​@DaveThorn76,

If you think your meter is running a bit too quickly, don’t worry! We’ve got a useful article below that can offer some helpful tips to get to the bottom of it. 

Nukecad brought up a great point about meter readings! If you haven’t submitted any recently, the billing system might be estimating your bills based on last year's usage, which would likely be higher if you were keeping a comfortable temperature in the property. Do you have access to your online account to check when the last readings were updated?

Also, adjusting your temperatures and finding ways to make the property more energy-efficient are fantastic ideas from Julia and Bendog. These adjustments could really help in lowering your future bills, so it’s worth considering!

Since you do not already have them, I think that you could benefit from arranging to get smart meters fitted. This would allow you to see when and how much energy you use throughout a day. It also allows you to see, relatively quickly, what small or large changes make to your usage and costs.

The outside temperature, definitely, has an impact on your energy use. In December our average cost per day for gas was £2. In January our average cost per day for gas was £2.54. The average lowest temperature where I live in December was 4°C while in January it was 2°C.

​@DaveThorn76 The rationale for submitting readings the day AFTER your billing period end (ie. on the first day of a new billing period) is that manually submitted readings are allocated to the begining of the day they are submitted.

So a reading submitted on the first day of a billing period is applied to midnight at the end of the just ended billing period.

May I enter a plea here?

Quoting prices to illustrate changes is often not very helpful. Your example shows an increase in cost of 27%, but we have no way of knowing whether:

• Consumption increased;
• The price per unit increased;
• The standing charge per day increased;
• Some combination of the above happened.

We know that the capped cost per unit of gas for the typical household decreased by over 9% from December to January, while the standing charge increased by over 3%. On top of this confusion, we don’t know whether the figures you quote include the standing charge and VAT or not. Of course, since the rate of VAT didn’t change, whether it’s included or not makes no difference to the 27% increase you’re showing. But it would make a non-insignificant difference if, say, Dave were comparing his own numbers to yours.

In general, I’d say it’s almost always best to stick to quoting usage figures, in kWh where available (that means waiting a few days for reliable data, because the CV of the gas consumed isn’t known until a day or two after the fact). It’s quite likely that a change from one month to another is at least partly explained by a change in the amount of heating needed, itself in turn partly dependent on the weather.

Sorry for being an old pedant!

🧐

I knew that I had forgotten to add something to this post. (It was the second time that I had tried to post - the first one had failed to post. I got the “Something has gone wrong” message.)

I failed to mention, this time, that I am on a fix that finishes in August 2026. So no tariff cost changes were involved between December and January.

I used the price comparison to show that weather conditions have a definite effect on usage and cost. I just failed to include the context both regarding the tariff and that the standing charge and VAT are included in those figures.

I have written a 1000 times: I must do better!🐶🤣

Thanks!

Having a combi-boiler and no immersion tank, I’ve just adjusted the temperatures for the Heating and Hot Water down to 45 degrees each (They were set at 60 and 55 degrees respectively)
Will send new meter readings now, and see if this makes any difference at the end of the current billing period/month!

With a combi boiler, you also have another option. They have a facility that keeps a small amount of hot water always instantly available. This means that it is heating that water, because it cools naturally, several times a day. It is possible to turn this function off. It just means that when you turn on a tap, you may have to wait a short while before you get hot water. 

Yep.
I think that option on ours is turned off, as I have to run the hot tap for a few seconds before the hot water comes out.
After having a quick google at optimum boiler temperatures, I’ve nudged both back up to 50 degrees.

Hey ​@DaveThorn76, 

Thank you so much for keeping us updated on your progress! We're eager to see how this might affect your next bill. If you have any questions at all, please feel free to reach out. 

Though I would jump back on here, as I’d like to point something out…

I recently applied to Thames Water to see if I could get any help from them, due to my being on Low Income and currently out of work.

After submitting my income and expenditure, this is the reply I received:
 

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Thanks for sending us your income and expenditure information. 
 
We’re pleased to tell you that you’ve been accepted onto our WaterHelp scheme. Your standard rate water bills will be discounted by 50% from 07/02/2026. We’ve also set you up on an affordable payment plan to clear your balance. 
 

Water Help does not impact your credit score.

We’ve added a payment break to your account 
After looking at your financial situation, we’ve now applied a payment break of three months to your account. We hope this makes things a bit easier. The break will be effective from 16/02/2026 to 16/05/2026. 

What happens next?  
There is nothing for you to do. You’ll receive the details of your plan in a separate communication within the next 10 working days.  

Half price water for those on low income, even if it is just temporary…. now THAT is amazing.

What a shame Energy Companies like OVO cannot do this!

Agree, WaterHelp is amazing! But please, keep your eye on your bills. Last year they accidentally removed it from me. So, I had to call them explaining what went wrong… It was put back and even backdated for the months it when it was missing. Also, WaterHelp is not the cheaper (aka Social) tariff. It’s the 50% discount.

Back to OVO, they offer additional £150 support which is on top of what the government promised. I know it’s not as much as TW offers, but still a good one. 

I’m guessing the other Water Social Tariff is “WaterSure” - 

• WaterSure (Capped Rates): For customers on a water meter who receive benefits and have a large family or specific medical conditions, capping annual bills (e.g., £658 for water and wastewater in 2026-27).

WaterHelp is good enough for me, as my last bill was calculated as a new “Move in” bill from 17 December to 30 January, due to my mother passing away mid-December, and now being in a 3-bed property by myself, I use far less water, and had only got through 4 Cubic Metres that month, so the bill was only £40.08p - an average of .89p per day.
I can handle £20 a month, if only energy bills were that low, eh? :D 

WaterHelp and WaterSure are not social tariffs. They are schemes reducing the bill. Your bill is being counted in full, and then the scheme is being applied. But I agree, it’s a great help!

It’s always worth speaking to OVO’s customer service. And always check if your council or local charities have some additional support available.