Why have I been kicked off the Warm Home Discount scheme?

I receive the state pension but am not entitled to pension credit.

For the last two or three years I have received the Warm Home Discount.

I have been told that this year I’m not entitled to it as it’s only for people on certain benefits.

Bearing in mind I receive a total of £8,500 in pension, why am I being penalised because I’m on the enhanced pension?

SCROLL DOWN TO FIND OUT HOW TO ASK STEVE YOUR PENSION QUESTION    

Help needed with bills: Why have I been kicked off the Warm Home Discount scheme?

Steve Webb replies: With so many different Government schemes to help out with energy bills and other household costs, it can be very hard to keep track of the rules for each one.

I’ll deal in this reply with the Warm Home Discount scheme, but readers can find a full list of the various Government help schemes here.

The Warm Home Discount scheme has been running for over a decade and is designed to make a modest contribution to the energy bills of certain low income households.

I will refer in my reply to the rules for England and Wales but you can find details of the Scottish Warm Home Discount scheme here and Northern Ireland’s Affordable Warmth scheme here.

The way the scheme works is to make a one-off annual payment directly to the electricity supplier of eligible households. Last year the payment was worth £140 and this year it has been increased to £150.

The ‘core group’ of people eligible for the Warm Home Discount is pensioners receiving the ‘guarantee credit’ element of pension credit.

Under a data-sharing agreement between the DWP and the main energy companies, DWP will flag to the energy supplier if one of their customers falls within this group and money is then automatically credited to the customer’s electricity account.

The large majority of energy suppliers are part of the scheme and you can check if your supplier is included here.

In addition to this, until this year, a wider group of low income households were able to apply for help, as well as those on certain disability benefits.

As you are not on pension credit, I assume that you qualified last year as part of this ‘wider’ group of low income households or because of receipt of a disability benefit.

One concern about the way the system used to work was that lots of potentially eligible people in this wider group didn’t necessarily know about the scheme and failed to put in a claim.

There were also concerns that money was not being targeted as efficiently as it could be on those with the greatest risk of fuel poverty.

As a result, the Government undertook a consultation about the Warm Home Discount, the results of which were published earlier this year.

In response to this, the Government has made three key changes to the Warm Home Discount scheme as it applies to those outside the ‘core group’ of low income pensioners. These are:

Steve Webb: Find out how to ask the former Pensions Minister a question about your retirement savings in the box below

– Eligible households in the wider group (now called ‘Core Group 2’) will now receive payments automatically without having to put in a claim;

– Eligibility will depend not only on having a low income (as defined by being in receipt of benefits such as savings credit, universal credit, housing benefit and so on) but also that your property has a ‘high energy cost score’; the energy cost score will be worked out for you based on your property’s size and characteristics;

– Receipt of a disability benefit will no longer automatically entitle you to help.

The Government says that these changes will increase the number of households benefiting from a payment by 750,000.

But they also acknowledge that around 290,000 households on Disability Living Allowance or Personal Independence Payment will no longer be entitled.

If you came under the ‘wider’ group last year because of receipt of a disability benefit it is possible that this is why you got a payment last year and have been excluded this year.

But another possibility is that your property does not have a high ‘energy cost score’, so although you met the criteria for the wider group last year, you do not qualify this year because of the addition of a fuel poverty test.

I’m sure you’ve looked into this, but I see that the pension figure you have quoted is actually below the pension credit level.

You may have other income, but you can use the helpful tool on the gov.uk website to check if you are eligible for pension credit.

If your application is successful – even for a very small amount of the ‘guarantee credit’ – this will automatically entitle you to the Warm Home Discount in future years.