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Warm Home Discount delay

  • 29 November 2023
  • 25 replies
  • 619 views

Trying to get answers as to why my warm home discount has not been applied ...received an email from OVO stating it would be applied by 27th November.  Its not been done ..

They have told me it's the government that pay it not them? 

Government told me its OVO that pay it not them?

Why can't I get a straight answer????

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Best answer by Emmanuelle_OVO 1 December 2023, 11:18

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25 replies

I was told i would receive my home warm discount by 30/11/2023 but no sign yet.

Userlevel 7
Badge +5

If you have an email from OVO then it’s up to them to organise payment. 
I know that some have got more useful answers via the OVO twitter (X) route

Userlevel 7
Badge +1

Erm… It’s not the 30th November yet? Try being a bit more patient - it may help.

Userlevel 7

Hey @Laughsplace,

 

Really sorry to hear your payment is delayed, 

 

 

For those in England and Wales, eligible customers will receive a letter from the Government confirming if they are eligible, and don’t need to do anything to apply.

 

 

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.

 

For those in Scotland, the Core Group remains unchanged and applies to those who were in receipt of the Guaranteed Element of Pension Credit on 13 August 2023. If you fall under this category, you do not need to take any action and you’ll receive a letter to notify you of your eligibility.

 

For customers in Scotland who fall under the Broader Group, you do still need to apply - you can check out this really handy guide on eligibility criteria for the Broader Group in Scotland, as well as the homepage for the Broader group from the Government: https://www.gov.uk/the-warm-home-discount-scheme/low-income-scotland.

 

Are you from England and Wales? Are you in the ‘core group 1’ or ‘core group 2’ Did you get a letter from the Government? 

 

The money is not paid to you - it’s a one-off discount applied to your meter between early October 2023 and 31 March 2024.

 

The support team will be able to advise if the payment has been added to your account yet, if so, this should be applied to your meter soon. The payment does come from the government, but OVO will be responsible for allocating it to your account.

 

I hope this helps. 

Userlevel 7

Hey @Hallokathotmail.com,

 

Welcome to the OVO Online Community, 

 

I just saw another Pay As You Go customer report their payment is delayed also! I’ll report back if I hear anything internally about payment delays. 

 

Have you received your payment yet? I can see you said it would be paid by the 30th. It’s worth noting it sometimes will get added to the gas meter instead. 

 

For those in England and Wales, eligible customers will receive a letter from the Government confirming if they are eligible, and don’t need to do anything to apply.

 

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.

 

Are you from England and Wales? Are you in the ‘core group 1’ or ‘core group 2’ Did you get a letter from the Government? 

 

The money is not paid to you - it’s a one-off discount applied to your meter between early October 2023 and 31 March 2024.

 

The support team will be able to advise if the payment has been added to your account yet, if so, this should be applied to your meter soon. The payment does come from the government, but OVO will be responsible for allocating it to your account.

 

I hope this helps. 

Yeah ...useless reply !!!! …

 

Yes I am eligible 

Yes I have had a letter from government saying I'm eligible 

OVO know I am eligible 

OVO sent me an email !!

"You don't need to do anything. We'll get your Warm Home Discount to you by the 27/11/2023 and let you know when it's done."

Please OVO stop posting useless replies!!!

Userlevel 7
Badge +2

Yeah ...useless reply !!!! …

 

Yes I am eligible 

Yes I have had a letter from government saying I'm eligible 

OVO know I am eligible 

OVO sent me an email !!

"You don't need to do anything. We'll get your Warm Home Discount to you by the 27/11/2023 and let you know when it's done."

Please OVO stop posting useless replies!!!

HI @Laughsplace 

I don't work for OVO, I am just a customer like you.

It is unfortunate that you will find that the OVO customer service team when you phone up have a  variety of knowledge on various subjects including the Warm Home Discount. Most are great in my experience but some can give misleading information from time to time.

No one on this forum, including the OVO  moderators, can access your account.

As @BPLightlog says it might be worth trying the official ovo twitter or Facebook pages. Both are official support channels and unlike the forum, ovo staff on twitter and Facebook can access your account.

Userlevel 7
Badge +2

Also of course these answers are available for anyone to read so including all the information in an answer as above would be helpful for anyone searching on the subject.

Userlevel 7

Hey @Laughsplace,

 

Really sorry, this sounds very frustrating. 

 

I’ve asked internally if there are any delays in payments being experienced for pay as you go customers. I’ll report back to this topic if I hear anything.

 

It may be that it’s an account specific issue, I'd chase this up with the support team:

 

How to get in contact about my OVO Pay As You Go account

 

  • The best way to get in touch with us is via chat here. Just click the green chat icon on the bottom right of your screen. We’re here to help anytime from 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday and 8am to 2pm on Saturday.
  • Or call us on 0330 175 9669 during the same times.

 

If you’re with Boost

Userlevel 7

Hey @Laughsplace,

 

Got the following update, we’ve temporarily paused payments but aim to re-start payments over the next few days:

 

We’re pausing Warm Home Discount (WHD) payments for now
 
What’s happened?

We’ve noticed an issue with the VAT applied to WHD transactions, so we’ve made a change to make sure VAT is being applied correctly.

What have we done to fix this?

We’ve temporarily paused WHD payments while we fix the issue. We’ve also created two new transactions which will replace the existing WHD transactions, which clearly describe how VAT is calculated. 
 
The payments will be applied at £142.86 with VAT calculated at 5%, which is an additional £7.14. The total payment customers will receive is £150
 
For Core Group (customers notified to us by the Department of Work and Pension as eligible) customers we’ll use the following transaction:

  • £150 Warm Home Discount CG13 (£142.86 + £7.14 VAT)

For Broader Group (customers in Scotland who have applied to OVO for WHD) customers, we’ll use this transaction:

  • £150 Warm Home Discount BG13 (£142.86 + £7.14 VAT)


The payment is applied prior to VAT being added to the bill, so the amount is added as £142.86 and then the VAT attributed is 5% at £7.14. For example:

We’ll give another update soon and will aim to restart payments over the next few days. 

Userlevel 7

Hey @hallokath,

 

We’ve temporarily paused payments but aim to re-start payments over the next few days:

 

We’re pausing Warm Home Discount (WHD) payments for now
 
What’s happened?

We’ve noticed an issue with the VAT applied to WHD transactions, so we’ve made a change to make sure VAT is being applied correctly.

What have we done to fix this?

We’ve temporarily paused WHD payments while we fix the issue. We’ve also created two new transactions which will replace the existing WHD transactions, which clearly describe how VAT is calculated. 
 
The payments will be applied at £142.86 with VAT calculated at 5%, which is an additional £7.14. The total payment customers will receive is £150
 
For Core Group (customers notified to us by the Department of Work and Pension as eligible) customers we’ll use the following transaction:

  • £150 Warm Home Discount CG13 (£142.86 + £7.14 VAT)

For Broader Group (customers in Scotland who have applied to OVO for WHD) customers, we’ll use this transaction:

  • £150 Warm Home Discount BG13 (£142.86 + £7.14 VAT)


The payment is applied prior to VAT being added to the bill, so the amount is added as £142.86 and then the VAT attributed is 5% at £7.14. For example:

We’ll give another update soon and will aim to restart payments over the next few days. 

Userlevel 1

I’m having no luck trying to apply the Warm Home Discount to my electricity key. The email from OVO said “Top up your electricity key at your usual Paypoint- it can be any amount from about £1 upwards Repeat step 1 (above) over different days, until you've made 3-5 top-ups in total”.

I have tried this for 3 days in a row at the same shop, yet still no discount applied to my key. This is very challenging as I am a full time carer in a home with disabilities and it’s hard to get out to do this. 

Has anybody else had this issue? It might be easier if OVO just sent a code you could scan and get it done with one outing to the shop.

Userlevel 7
Badge +1

Hey @Zonnely ,

Try OVO PAYG Support for this, they can help. If you call 0330 175 9669 or use Live Chat via https://ovoenergy.com/help during the week, they can fix this with you.

Userlevel 1

Thanks Blastoise, I may have to try that if I don’t find a solution in the meantime.

Userlevel 7
Badge +1

np. Try a couple more top-ups in the meantime. Remote Token Issue transactions via this method usually require four visits to the shop rather than three.

Try two more times at the same shop - you might get lucky.

Userlevel 1

Thanks again Blastoise, unfortunately the local shop has a £5 minimum spend on top ups. Do you know if I’m not suppose to put the key in our meter after each visit? Or should I be doing all 4 separate visits before slotting the the key into the meter?

Userlevel 7
Badge +1

You do need to put the key in each time after each visit - otherwise the codes may overwrite each other.

Userlevel 1

Ok thanks again, I thought it was OK to do that but just started second guessing my methods when it wasn’t working. I’m going to try another top up tomorrow.

Userlevel 6

Hey @Zonnely 

 

Sorry to hear about the trouble you’re having getting the Warm Home Discount onto the electric key.

 

Did you top up again over the weekend and did it work? If not, definitely get in touch with the Support Team, as they’ll be able to help get this applied to the key.

Userlevel 1

Thanks for the help so far. I put £5 on the electric key for the 6th day in a row now and still my meter is only seeing the same £5 I keep putting on and not the WHD that’s supposed to apply. Does anyone know if the WHD is applied to the key in a non monetary code versus straight credit? That may explain why only the credit I purchase is going on, and not the WHD.

Userlevel 6

Hey @Zonnely 

 

Sorry to hear this is still ongoing.

 

Can I just double check how many top ups you’ve now made?

 

I have reached out to the team to check what to do next, and they’ve recommended getting in touch with the Support Team so that they can check the status of the message with the WHD on it, it seems like these have only recently been sent out so this may have been causing the delay in it being picked up with you top ups. They team will be able to see if there’s an issue or if it’s ready to be collected on the next top up. 

 

Let us know how you get on with the team.

That sounds like a nightmare.

 

Is this what everyone who will receive the £150 warm home discount and use pay as you go without a smart meter will need to do?

When I received the previous energy bill  support scheme which was roughly a voucher for £67 for 6 months it was very easy to put on key and had no issues.

 

I have not received any email with instructions and while I received letters weeks ago I have not heard anything since and I am still waiting for my warm home discount to arrive, it was supposed to arrive by today.

Userlevel 1

Hey @Zonnely 

 

 

 

Can I just double check how many top ups you’ve now made?

 

So far I have made 6 payments of £5 for 6 straight days in a row, but still no WHD credit has been applied.

 

Userlevel 1

That sounds like a nightmare.

 

Is this what everyone who will receive the £150 warm home discount and use pay as you go without a smart meter will need to do?

When I received the previous energy bill  support scheme which was roughly a voucher for £67 for 6 months it was very easy to put on key and had no issues.

 

I have not received any email with instructions and while I received letters weeks ago I have not heard anything since and I am still waiting for my warm home discount to arrive, it was supposed to arrive by today.

I can only assume all pay as you go non-smart meters have to do this, as this is our situation.

Userlevel 6

Hey @Max12BL 

 

Like Zonnely mentioned this is only for customers with traditional key meters. If you’re on Smart Pay as you Go, you won’t need to do this. You can find more on this on the webpage Q&A here.

 

@Zonnely I’d recommend getting in touch with the Support Team now if you’ve not done so already so they can check on the message status.

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