Warm Home Discount 2026/27

What it is

The Warm Home Discount Scheme is a one-off £150 discount off your electricity bill. If you are eligible, your electricity supplier applies it to your bill, so the money is not paid to you. If one supplier provides both your gas and electricity, you may be able to get the discount on your gas bill instead. If you use a pre-pay or pay-as-you-go electricity meter you can still qualify, and your supplier tells you how you will get it, for example a voucher to top up the meter. Park home residents apply a different way, through the Park Homes Warm Home Discount.

The discount does not affect your Cold Weather Payment or Winter Fuel Payment. It is not available in Northern Ireland.

England and Wales

You may be eligible if all of the following applied on 23 August 2026:

• your energy supplier is part of the scheme
• you (or your partner) get certain means-tested benefits
• your name (or your partner's) is on the electricity bill

This is the core group. The qualifying means-tested benefits are:

• Universal Credit
• Housing Benefit
• income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
• Pension Credit

You get a letter between late October 2026 and early January 2027 if you are eligible, or if you might be and need to give more information. If you are eligible, the letter confirms you do not need to do anything and your supplier applies the discount by 31 March 2027. If you need to give more information, the letter tells you to call the helpline by 26 February 2027 to confirm your details. Pension Credit itself is covered on the Pension Credit Calculator page.

Scotland

The same three conditions apply on 23 August 2026. What differs is how you get it.

Automatic (core group). You or your partner get the discount automatically if you:

• get Pension Credit
• get an extra amount of Universal Credit because you or your child has a disability or health condition
• get a disability premium or a pensioner premium of income-related Employment Support Allowance
• get a disability premium or a pensioner premium and have a Support for Mortgage Interest loan

You also get it automatically if you or your partner has responsibility for a child under 5 who normally lives with you and you are unemployed and get Universal Credit, get income-related Employment Support Allowance, or have a Support for Mortgage Interest loan.

Apply to your supplier (broader group). If you do not get the discount automatically, you apply directly to your energy supplier. The supplier may have extra eligibility criteria and tells you which benefits make you eligible. Contact them as early as possible, even if you were eligible last year, because the number of discounts suppliers can give is limited. If you are eligible, the supplier applies the discount by 31 March 2027, and you need to stay with that supplier until it is paid.

Key dates, winter 2026 to 2027

If you do not get a letter

Contact the Warm Home Discount Scheme if you have not had a letter by early January 2027 and you think you are eligible, and do so before 26 February 2027. The helpline is 0800 030 9322. If you live in Scotland and applied directly to your energy supplier, you will not get a letter from the scheme, so contact your supplier instead. GOV.UK keeps the current list of participating suppliers on its energy suppliers page.