Hey @Pepsi !

Good news. The Warm Home Discount has been boosted to £150 this year for both the Core Group and Broader Group. That’s the only significant change other than the fact it can be stacked on top of all these other schemes which were announced this week. More details on those in my guide at 

As for the start date, I’d expect applications will open sometime around September this year. Keep an eye on things as there’ll probably be an announcement when it opens.

Thank you for your reply.  I will go and read your guide 

What is the Warm Home Discount (WHD)?

The Warm Home Discount is a one-off £150 discount given to eligible domestic electricity customers to help with their energy costs. It's usually paid between October and March of each scheme year. It's a Government scheme funded by participating energy suppliers like us. It’s designed to help people who need it most.

Key changes in numbers

• WHD spending is increasing from £350 million to £475 million across all suppliers 

• 780,000 more households will receive the rebate

• 560,000 more fuel poor households will get help 

• The Warm Home discount rebate is increasing from £140 to £150

• 59% of recipients under the new scheme will be fuel poor compared to around 47% of recipients for the current scheme

These changes will apply for the next four years. 

England and Wales

If you live in England or Wales you don’t need to apply for the Warm Home Discount but you will need to meet the eligibility criteria set by the Government. This is split into two Core Groups:

• Core Group 1 - for people who get Guaranteed element of Pension Credit
• Core Group 2 - for people who get qualifying means-tested benefits or tax credits

The eligibility qualifying date for both groups is 13 August 2023. The Government will write to benefit claimants between October and December 2023.

What do I do if I don't get a letter?

In some cases the Government will write to you to request more information. It's important you give them this information by 28 February 2024 to be considered for the discount. We can only apply the discount once we’ve been told to by the Government.

Core Group 1

To be considered for the discount:

• You or you partner were named on the domestic electricity bill on 13 August 2023.
• You were supplied by part of the OVO Family on the 13th August. If you were supplied by another supplier participating in the scheme on the 13th August, that supplier will be told to give you the discount even if we're now supplying you.
• You or your partner got the Guaranteed element of Pension Credit on the qualifying date.

Core Group 2

To be considered for the discount:

• You or you partner were named on the domestic electricity bill on 13 August 2023.

• You were supplied by part of the OVO Family on the 13th August. If you were supplied by another supplier participating in the scheme on the 13th August, that supplier will be told to give you the discount even if we're now supplying you.

• You or you partner receive the following qualifying means-tested benefits or tax credits:

  • Housing Benefit

  • Income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)

  • Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA)

  • Income Support

  • The 'Savings Credit' part of Pension Credit

  • Universal Credit

    You could also qualify if your household income falls below a certain level and you get either:

  • Child Tax Credit

  • Working Tax Credit

• Your property has a high energy cost score. This is partly based on details of your property like its type, how old it is, and the overall floor size etc. The Department for Works & Pensions (DWP) will work with the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) to work out your property energy score. The Government will write to you if they need more information.

Please note that OVO’s Support team aren’t in a position to advise you on your benefits or warm home discount eligibility. If you’re not sure of any of the details above, Citizens Advice are well place to offer help and support.

Scotland

If you live in Scotland, there are two groups:

• Core group - you won't need to apply, but you must meet eligibility criteria.
• Broader group - you'll need to apply for the discount which will be applied on a first come, first served basis.

Core Group

To be considered for the discount:

• You or you partner were named on the domestic electricity bill on 13 August 2023.
• You were supplied by part of the OVO Family on the 13th August. If you were supplied by another supplier participating in the scheme on the 13th August, that supplier will be told to give you the discount even if we're now supplying you.
• You or your partner got the Guaranteed element of Pension Credit on the qualifying date.

The eligibility qualifying date is 13 August 2023. The Government will write to benefit claimants between October and December 2023.

What do I do if I don't get a letter?

In some cases the Government will write to you to request more information. It's important you give them this information by 28 February 2024 to be considered for the discount. We can only apply the discount once we’ve been told to by the Government.

Broader Group

Eligibility for the discount as part of the Broader group is on a first come first served basis. You can apply if you if you live in Scotland and don’t meet the Core Group eligibility.

Apply online (Scottish Broader Group)

You can also check out our own dedicated webpage with all of the most up to date information on the Warm Home Discount: https://www.ovoenergy.com/guides/energy-guides/warm-home-discount-scheme.

Thank you so much, that is really informative and helpful. How will Ovo find out/know about a person’s benefit/financial situation please? And who will inform us, yourselves, or the DWP?

I can partially answer that one too.

Based on previous experience with the manual method of applying as I’m in the Broader Group, it was a case of me submitting an application to OVO and then OVO would run some checks with the DWP to look up my benefits status. If those checks verified my benefits and circumstances as being active and eligible for WHD, the application got approved within around 90 seconds with an email being sent to me shortly afterwards from OVO to confirm it’s all gone through. Otherwise, if something went wrong it’d go to one of OVO’s teams for manual review.

That’s how it’s worked from the old system anyway. I don’t know exactly how it’ll work this time, but it could potentially be similar to how it works for the Core Group. I’ll keep an eye out for updates. If I learn more, my mega guide will be updated.

yes, it’s always been like that for me too. But now we will be in other people’s hands, my fear is they won’t do it quickly and all the money will be gone before it gets to us. I like to see to my own affairs, this will stress me out.

We’ll be informed of your eligibility based on information held by the DWP, @Pepsi . As mentioned, we’re still in the process of publishing the full details of the new way this will be advised to you so we’ll update this thread as soon as we know more.

I hear you there. It’s high on my list of stuff to research and I will be keeping an eye on it. Tim and Jess most definitely will as well!

I’m hoping that this new automated process should speed things up. It could even just be a trivial matter of an automated script sweeping through the DWP systems to identify every eligible claimant and then spit out a list of them to every energy supplier in the UK, And from there, have each supplier crunch that list to match up any customer records and for every confirmed match, automatically process a Warm Home Discount application.

That’s how I’d do it if it were me.

And of course, Jess Ninja’d me!

OK Jess,  all we can do is wait and see then, thanks for your help.

I wonder how all that will work with GDPR and getting permissions to sweep etc. , we shall see thanks again.

No worries. :)

GDPR allows this sort of data processing as long as it’s done properly and is ONLY used for the purpose of setting up Warm Home Discount claims. It cannot be used for marketing, debt collection, telesales or basically any other purpose beyond what’s on the tin.

Understood, thank you

I'm glad someone asked this question as this affects me too. Thanks for this info, much appreciated.

Will we be told about warm home discount in advance so we know.with it getting done automatically 

Hi @Mavis and welcome to the OVO online community,

Great question to ask about how and when you’ll find out about the Warm Home Discount payments this coming winter. As mentioned in the ‘Best Answer’ above:

 

We’ve just checked in Warm Home Discount team about when they’ll be in touch with successful recipients, so I’ll be back to let you know when we get more details on this.

Thanks for bearing with us.

Please let me know.

Hi, I have read the q & a above and can understand how ovo customers who have previously applied for WHD over previous years and whose details of who is in broader group you already have in your system. 

My query surrounds those who were moved from sse and had to apply 'manually' every year. Your system would not especially have my details or on what basis my applications were hitherto successful. So,it is all fair and well saying those in broader group won't gave to apply, but your above answers does not cover my specific group of customers. Could you please advise further on my specific query.  Many thanks.

Hi @FrancisY ,

I think it’ll probably be based primarily off of sources like the DWP rather than what your energy supplier knows about you. That way, no matter which supplier you’re with you should get WHD as long as your supplier is opted into BOTH Core and Broader Group.

Hi, Having read the new updated information on whd, I know there is more info to come, but what about those who were moved from SSE to Ovo and so at this moment we are '1st year customers' whereas SSE have all previous 15+ years information on bills/usage and fact that we had always been credited with £140 WHD payment. How will this affect how those on low income/in receipt means tested benefits/income related/core 2 group receive or don't receive the £150 this time? 

Many thanks for any answer you can give, or is it all down to DWP?!

The SSE to OVO Migration won’t block you from receiving the Warm Home Discount if you’re eligible for it, OVO will make sure of that.

If the DWP notifies OVO or SSE that you are eligible for WHD, it’ll all be arranged in the background so you won’t need to do anything.

Cheers, Blastoise. Also answered who deals with whd that now being dwp and not sse/ovo. Still like to know exactly how dwp calculate who eligible-those who fit benefit criteria easy enough, it is high usage household criteria and hiw this equates to high usage. On other forum there is saying 'if you can't blind them with science, blind them with bullsh!t' and this it seems us how they are going. The govt discounted easier ways of agreeing who would receive which even agreed not just by charities but also by energy co's, like ovo. I despair.

Hey @FrancisY,

Thank you for your question. 

@Blastoise186 is right if you are the Core Group 1 and get the Guaranteed Element of Pension Credit, you will automatically get the Warm Home Discount (WHD). There is more information about this on the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) website.  

The WHD is expanding so that more people will be eligible for the discount. This should mean that more people are receiving the help they need. There is more information about how this will be worked in this answer: 

Hope this helps.

Just wondering if it has to be the bill payer that receives the benefit to qualify?

Hey @Vixen1500, 

Thank you for that great question!

It is based on the household, not specifically the bill payer. 

Hope this helps. 

Warm Home Discount 2022/2023 i am a disabled man aged 57 i receive PIP and Income related ESA do i qualify for the warm home discount, it says in the overview that people who qualify who are on certain benefits would automatically be added by DWP, but i have never received this before and i have been in receipt of the two benefits mentioned above for years, i am just wondering why that might be or do i have to apply for it online every year. I have never heard of this discount before today as i was going through my OVO account and saw it on there and looked into it, any help or advice would be much appreciated.