Energy Support and Advice

You could get £150 off your electricity bill for winter 2023 to 2024 under the Warm Home Discount Scheme Warm Home Discount Scheme.

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

You may be able to get the discount on your gas bill instead if your supplier provides you with both gas and electricity and you’re eligible. Contact your supplier to find out.

The discount will not affect your Cold Weather Payment or Winter Fuel Payment.

If you’re more than 10 weeks pregnant or have a child under 4, the Healthy Start scheme can help you:

• buy healthy foods like milk or fruit
• get free vitamins

You need to be claiming certain benefits to qualify.

If you’re pregnant and under 18 you can claim even if you do not receive any benefits.

For more information or to apply, visit the NHS Healthy Start website.

If you were born on or before 25 September 1956 you could get between £250 and £600 to help you pay your heating bills. This is known as a ‘Winter Fuel Payment’.

The amount you’ll get includes a ‘Pensioner Cost of Living Payment’. This is between £150 and £300. You’ll only get this extra amount in winter 2022 to 2023. This is in addition to any Cost of Living Payment you get with your benefit or tax credits.

You will get your Winter Fuel Payment automatically (you do not need to claim) if you’re eligible and either:

• get the State Pension
• get another social security benefit (not including Adult Disability Payment from the Scottish Government, Housing Benefit, Council Tax Reduction, Child Benefit or Universal Credit)

If you do not get either of these, or if you live abroad, you may need to make a claim.

If you’ve got a Winter Fuel Payment before, you do not need to claim again unless you’ve deferred your State Pension or moved abroad.

For more information on the Winter Fuel Payment, visit the Government website.

You may get Cold Weather Payments if you’re getting:

• Pension Credit
• Income Support
• income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
• income-related Employment and Support Allowance
• Universal Credit
• Support for Mortgage Interest

You’ll get £25 for each 7 day period of very cold weather between 1 November and 31 March.

After each period of very cold weather in your area, you should get a payment within 14 working days. It’s paid into the same bank or building society account as your benefit payments.

Cold Weather Payments do not affect your other benefits.

Switching an energy provider could save you money. If you’re looking to switch energy suppliers, there are many energy comparison websites available. We recommend using the Citizen Advice Bureau’s Comparison Tool to find the best energy deal.

If you don’t have internet access, you can phone the Citizens Advice Bureau on 03454 040506, and they will send you a factsheet with the deals available in your area.

If your energy supplier closes, you don’t need to do anything. You will still receive your gas and electricity as usual. Ofgem, the energy regulator, will move your account to a new supplier. They will let you know which one this is. 

MoneySavingExpert has put together an energy mythbusting guide to crack the less-obvious energy conundrums, including if it's cheaper to keep your heating on low all day, or whether painting your radiators black can help.

Martin Lewis from MoneySavingExpert explains the energy price cap increase:

 

If you are a tenant, from April your rent will be increasing. The headline increase for most of our tenants will be 4.1% which is in line with the Government Rent Standard which allows rent increases of Consumer Price Index (CPI) +1%. CPI is a common measure of inflation. Depending on the type of tenancy you hold with us, this increase will either be inclusive or exclusive of service charges.

Find out more on our dedicated changes to your rent page. 

We have all experienced the increase in energy costs over the last year. GoCompare have developed a useful tool that calculates how much it costs to run certain appliances. This may be helpful to see where you can save on your energy consumption.

 

Interactive Energy Cost Calculator