The Warm Home Discount is a £150 one-off credit applied to a household's electricity bill (or in some cases gas account) over the winter heating months.
The 2025 amendment to the Warm Home Discount Regulations 2022 widened the Broader Group eligibility by removing the high-energy-cost property gate, bringing an estimated 2.7 million additional low-income households into scope from winter 2025/26 onward.
Last reviewed: May 2026
TL;DR
- WHD payment is £150 per eligible household, unchanged since scheme year 2022/23.
- Core Group: anyone receiving Pension Credit Guarantee Credit on the qualifying date is auto-eligible.
- Broader Group: low-income households on means-tested benefits; from 2025/26 the high-energy-cost property gate was removed.
- Scotland runs a separate WHD route with different qualifying mechanics, administered by Scottish suppliers under the Scotland-specific Order.
- Payment lands as a credit between October and March of each scheme year, applied automatically where the supplier holds DWP/HMRC data-share.
What the 2025 amendment actually changed
Before scheme year 2025/26, the Broader Group route in England and Wales had two gates. The household had to be on a qualifying means-tested benefit AND the property had to be assessed by the Valuation Office Agency as a "high energy cost" property based on property characteristics (size, fuel type, age band).
The property gate was the structural reason most low-income working households on Universal Credit were rejected: the means-tested benefit cleared, but the property assessment did not.
The Warm Home Discount (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2025 removed the property gate for Broader Group eligibility. The means-tested benefit alone now triggers eligibility, subject to the supplier's data match. DESNZ's impact assessment estimated 2.7 million additional households brought into scope, taking the total Broader Group population for England and Wales to roughly 3 million households per scheme year.
The catch is that the scheme is still rationed by supplier obligation level. Each obligated supplier is allocated a target number of WHD payments under the regulations, and they discharge that obligation in scheme-year order. A household theoretically eligible in November who applies (or whose data match arrives) late in the cycle may be told the supplier has hit its annual ceiling; the payment then rolls to the next scheme year.
Core Group versus Broader Group: how the two routes work
Core Group is the simpler route. The household receives Pension Credit Guarantee Credit on the qualifying date (a single date in summer, set each scheme year by DESNZ). DWP shares the data with DESNZ, which matches it against energy supplier customer records. The supplier applies the £150 credit automatically between October and March. No application is required. Broader Group is the wider, lower-income working-age route. The household receives any of:
- Universal Credit
- Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
- Income-based Jobseeker's Allowance
- Income Support
- Pension Credit Savings Credit (the lower element)
- Child Tax Credit (income-tested)
- Working Tax Credit (income-tested)
- Housing Benefit
From 2025/26, the broader group eligibility flows through HMRC and DWP data-sharing with energy suppliers under the WHD framework. Most eligible households receive the credit automatically; a small minority are sent a letter inviting them to confirm their details and supplier on a DESNZ-run portal.
Scotland: a separate scheme with separate mechanics
Scotland runs the Warm Home Discount under the Warm Home Discount (Scotland) Regulations, not the England and Wales Order. The Core Group operates similarly (Pension Credit Guarantee Credit holders, automatic). The Broader Group works differently: suppliers in Scotland accept Broader Group applications directly, and each supplier publishes its own eligibility criteria within the regulatory floor.
Applications open on a first-come-first-served basis each autumn, and several major Scottish-market suppliers exhaust their Broader Group allocation within days or weeks of opening. On the ground, the practical effect is that a Scottish customer eligible on paper may still miss out for the scheme year if they did not apply quickly enough.
The 2025 amendment removing the high-energy-cost gate applies to the England and Wales scheme. The Scotland-specific Order has not been amended in the same way; Scottish Broader Group remains supplier-administered and rationed by application speed.
Northern Ireland: an entirely separate fuel poverty regime
Northern Ireland is not covered by the WHD. The equivalent support is the Affordable Warmth Scheme administered by NIHE plus winter fuel and cost-of-living payments routed through the Department for Communities. The £150 WHD credit does not appear on Northern Irish electricity bills.
Payment timing and how the credit appears on the bill
The credit lands as a £150 reduction on the electricity account. For dual-fuel customers, the rebate applies to the electricity element by default; some suppliers split the credit across both fuels on request. The credit lands any time between October of the scheme year and March of the following calendar year, with most suppliers paying out in November or December.
| Scheme year | Qualifying date (Pension Credit holders) | Payment window | Total scheme value |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 21 August 2022 | October 2022 to March 2023 | £475 million obligated |
| 2023/24 | 13 August 2023 | October 2023 to March 2024 | £475 million obligated |
| 2024/25 | 11 August 2024 | October 2024 to March 2025 | £600 million obligated (uplifted) |
| 2025/26 (expansion year) | August 2025 (date set in DESNZ guidance) | October 2025 to March 2026 | Expanded scheme, estimated 6 million payments total |
| 2026/27 | To be set by DESNZ ahead of scheme launch | October 2026 to March 2027 | Continued expanded scope |
The credit is not paid as cash. It can offset a debit balance but cannot be withdrawn as a transfer. Prepayment customers receive the credit either as a top-up voucher mailed by post or as a virtual top-up applied via the smart meter, depending on the supplier's chosen mechanism.
The traditional prepayment carve-out and why it matters
Roughly 4 million households in Great Britain are on prepayment meters. Of those, around 1.5 million are on legacy traditional prepayment (key meters and older token meters) which cannot accept a remote credit application. WHD payments to those households arrive as a paper voucher (an OPG or Paypoint voucher mailed to the customer's address) which the customer then redeems at a Post Office or Paypoint outlet.
Here is where it breaks: paper vouchers issued under the WHD in previous scheme years have non-trivial non-redemption rates. Ofgem's compliance reviews into supplier WHD payment practices flagged voucher non-redemption as an equity issue concentrated in vulnerable households, particularly those with mobility issues or in remote rural postcodes where the nearest Paypoint is several miles away.
Smart prepayment customers receive the credit applied automatically through the smart meter network. This is now the majority of prepayment WHD recipients post the 2024 smart prepayment migration push.
What to do if the credit does not appear
The standard timeline gives the credit until 31 March of the scheme year to land. If it has not appeared by mid-February in an eligibility year where the household receives a qualifying benefit, the action steps are:
- Check the supplier's WHD page for the published scheme cut-off and any data-share confirmation letter.
- Confirm the benefit recipient lives at the address on the energy account (a common rejection is a partner being the named account holder while the benefit is in the other partner's name; the link can usually be confirmed by phone).
- Contact the supplier's WHD team directly; they can manually trigger the data match.
- If the supplier has hit its annual cap, ask for the rollover to next scheme year in writing.
- Escalate to the Energy Ombudsman after eight weeks of unresolved supplier handling, where the eligibility appears clear on the regulations.
The Energy Ombudsman's 2025 annual report logged a measurable rise in WHD-related complaints during the 2024/25 winter, concentrated on data-share failures and supplier-cap rationing.
Stacking WHD with other support
WHD is independent of the Winter Fuel Payment, Cold Weather Payment, and Pension Credit itself. A household receiving Pension Credit Guarantee Credit can receive WHD, Winter Fuel Payment (subject to age thresholds), and Cold Weather Payment for qualifying cold spells in the same winter without one offsetting another.
ECO4 (and the successor scheme from April 2026) targets the same broad household population but funds capital measures (insulation, heating) rather than the bill credit. A household can receive WHD and have ECO-funded measures installed in the same year; the two schemes are funded through different supplier obligations.
The Household Support Fund, administered by local councils in England, is a discretionary route that often pays fuel-bill top-ups to households already on WHD. Wales and Scotland run equivalent discretionary support through devolved budgets.
Pre-payment customers, smart meter mode switches, and the rebate complication
A smart meter in prepayment mode can switch to credit mode and back under SLC 27 if the supplier and customer agree. A switch in mid-scheme year can complicate WHD application: the credit applies to the account state on the date of supplier processing, which means a customer who has switched from prepayment to credit billing may receive a credit applied to the new credit account rather than vouchers to the old prepayment account, or vice versa, depending on supplier handling.
In practice, the supplier's WHD team can manually override the default processing if the customer flags the mode switch. The friction is that the customer has to flag it; the default process does not.
Frequently asked questions
Does the household need to apply for WHD or is it automatic?
Mostly automatic in England and Wales from 2025/26 onward through HMRC and DWP data-sharing. Scotland's Broader Group remains supplier-application based and competes for capped supplier allocations.
What if the named account holder is not the benefit recipient?
The supplier can usually link the two if both live at the same address. Contact the supplier's WHD team to confirm the household match; the credit can still apply.
Is WHD taxable or counted as income for benefits?
No. WHD is a bill credit applied directly to the energy account and is not treated as income for benefits or tax purposes.
Can a household receive WHD twice in one scheme year?
No. The credit is one per eligible household per scheme year. Households that move suppliers mid-year retain the credit on the original account if it has already been applied.
What happens if the supplier exits the market between qualification and payment?
The Supplier of Last Resort process under the SoLR rules transfers customer accounts and the WHD obligation moves with them. The replacement supplier honours the credit.
Will the £150 amount go up in future scheme years?
The 2025 regulations kept the £150 figure but built in scope for the Secretary of State to uplift via further amendment. No uplift has been confirmed for 2026/27 at the time of writing.