Email about being removed from Warmer Home Plan - but info on me is incorrect.

It would help to see the email itself. Could you post a screenshot of it, with any personal information obscured?

Meanwhile, this thread may help: How do I get this OVO energy warmer home plan? The only difference between this plan and the one it’s based on is the removal of the surcharge imposed on those who elect to pay on demand rather than by Direct Debit. This sounds like a mopping-up exercise for a few customers still on a long-obsolete plan.

Hey ​@LizzyFrostie,

Welcome to the OVO Online Community, 

I’ll ask about this internally & see if I can find more information. It makes sense to me that if a customer is no longer eligable for the warm home discount they would be removed from the warmer home plan. 

Have you recieved the discount the last few years?

I note that if I go to the ‘Our Plans’ page I am shown the “Warmer Home Plan - 01/07/2025”.

However looking more closely the rates and standing charges are exactly the same as the “Simpler Energy - 01/07/2025” (aka the Standard variable Rate).

So the Warmer Home Plan would appear to now be a surperflous, unneeded, plan?

PS. I used to get the WHD, but lost it when the government changed the qualfying rules to include property size/age. (I should qualify again this year though because the new gov’t has dropped those particular requirements).

Translation for people who are not paid by the word-

“It's an old plan that is now the same as Simpler Energy, so we are closing it and moving anyone still on it to Simpler Energy”.

I’ve dont qualify for WHD Years ago I got help from Warm Home Discount and had a boiler installed, because I was on highest rate disability I’m now on PIP but that isn’t a qualifying benefit now. Disabled get no help other than the PIP benefit. If you have no other income you can I believe claim UC but my husband has a private pension. Took early retirement and took a part time job, as he also needed to look after me. 

Hey ​@chrisablake,

I’m sorry to hear this, 

This topic might be helpful to you:
 

What other schemes are available to offer financial support?

Fuel Direct Scheme

The Fuel Direct Scheme helps to pay your energy bills directly from your benefits (the scheme is run by the Department for Work and Pensions). If you get any of the following benefits, this might be helpful for you: 

• Income-Based Jobseeker’s Allowance
• Income Support
• Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
• Pension Credit
• Universal Credit (but only if you’re not working)

For more information, contact Jobcentre Plus (or your pension centre if you’re on Pension Credit).

You’ll need to tell them:

• That we’re your energy supplier
• The amount of money that’s owed 
• Your OVO account number
• Your National Insurance number

If you Pay As You Go for your energy and would like to sign up to the Fuel Direct Scheme, we’ll need to switch your meter to credit mode (pay monthly) first.
 

Cold Weather Payment

A Cold Weather Payment might be available to you, if you’re getting certain benefits. These payments are made if the temperature in your area is forecasted or recorded to be 0C or below for over 7 days in a row. If that’s the case, you could be eligible for £25 credit for each 7-day period (between 1 November and 31 March).

You might be eligible for Cold Weather Payments if you’re getting:

• Pension Credit
• Income Support
• Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
• Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
• Universal Credit
• Support for Mortgage Interest

Find out more and see if you’re eligible here.

Winter Fuel Payment

This is available to people who were born on or before 26 September 1955. It’s an annual one-off payment between £100 and £300, to help pay for your heating over the winter. 

Find out more about the Winter Fuel Payment here. 
 

How the Priority Services Register can help you

• Alternative communication – if you’re visually impaired, we can send black and white, large print, audio or braille bills and statements to you and/or a family member/carer. We can also give you a call to read out your bills and statements to you if you prefer. 
• Free Gas Safety Checks – some PSR members can get free Gas Safety Checks. Check if you're eligible for a free check:
  • Live with a child under five years old,
  • Live alone or with others and have reached state pension age, or
  • Live alone or with others and are disabled or chronically ill,
  • Live with others who have reached state pension age or are disabled, chronically ill or under 18 years old
• I’m eligible. How do I apply? Just call 0330 303 5063 (8am to 6pm Monday to Friday and 9am to 2pm on Saturday) and we’ll get you booked in

• What happens at a gas safety check?
  • A Gas Safe registered engineer will come to your home to check the safety of your gas appliances and other gas fittings.
  • They’ll also examine the effectiveness of any flue, the supply of combustion air, its operating pressure and/or heat input and whether it's working safely. If the engineer spots anything that’s faulty or not safe, they’ll disconnect your gas supply before they leave
  • The Gas Safe Register replaced CORGI as the gas registration body in Great Britain and the Isle of Man on 1 April 2009.
• Notice of planned power cuts – we’ll tell you well in advance of planned power cuts. This is especially important if you have medical equipment that needs power. 
• Move your meter or Pay As You Go meter – if you find it difficult to read or reach your meter, we can move it for easier access. 
• Send an engineer to read your meter – if you can’t read your meter, we’ll send someone over to help. For your peace of mind, you can ask our OVO engineer to use a password, so you know who you’re letting in.

I’ve received this - no circumstances have changed, we still receive warmer home discount. We’ve been to,d we’ll be moved. Once they said it was an error and we will stay on it. Today they have said it won’t exist and we’re moved onto something exactly the same cost. First they said because we weren’t eligible but couldn’t say why, then they said it was because we were moved from SSE. I asked why not just say it doesn’t exist rather than you’re not eligible? I’m not sure it’s the whole story

Hey ​@Watkins,

I’m sorry to hear of any confusion this has caused,

The warmer home plan was a non-standard tariff with strict eligibility criteria. Direct Debit paying customers will not be negatively impacted.

For customers that are paying On Demand, they can benefit to switching to Direct Debit to avoid increased costs. 

To be eligable for the plan a customer must fulfil ALL of the following criteria:

1. The customer was eligible for WHD in scheme year 6, 7, or 8 (2016, 2017, or 2018).

2. OVO (or formerly Energy Services) administered the WHD for those customers in those years.

3. The customer has remained with OVO:

• Have never left OVO and then returned at any point since starting on the tariff

• Have never changed to a fix tariff and then come back to WHP

• Did not join OVO after Scheme year 8 finished

This change does not impact any customers' Warm Home Discount benefit or eligibility, only the Warmer Homes Plan tariff. 
 

If you’re having any issues please contact our support team, this update has been fed out to our agents. 

Hope this helps. 

Thanks for your reply. We should be eligible then but are you saying the warmer home plan tariff doesn’t exist anymore? 

… but just a week ago, 

Which is it, I wonder?

I qualified in scheme years 7 and 8, but missed the ‘qualification date’ by a few days in year 6. I spent a few seasons on the Warmer Home Plan until a fixed-rate tariff turned up that saved me a lot. This would suggest that it’s or, not and.

Hey ​@Firedog, 

You're correct that or is being used. The customer needs to be eligible in at least one of the years mentioned. I've informed the Warm Home Discount team of this error. Anything customer-facing will be edited for clarity, so thank you for pointing that out.

I’ve also edited the thread above to reflect the changes to avoid any further confusion and added a callout to confirm the update!