BEIS consultation opened on expanding Warm Home Discount in Scotland

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has started a consultation on whether the Warm Home Discount rebate in Scotland should be extended to more people and increased from £140 to £150¹. The consultation opened on 11 May 2022 and closes on 22 May 2022¹.

The government has proposed an update to the Warm Home Discount in Scotland that could see a further 50,000 households get money off their energy bills¹. Doing so would mean more than 280,000 Scottish households would be eligible for it¹. BEIS has also proposed that the initiative should be extended to include smaller energy suppliers in Scotland, and that it should rise to £150, putting it on a par with how it will work in England and Wales from October 2022¹. The rebate would also be extended until 2026 in Scotland, as the cost of living crisis continues¹.

The scheme is a government-run initiative, regulated by Ofgem, that gives customers a discount off their electricity bills if they struggle to afford them¹. The Warm Home Discount is a discount of £140 on electricity bills to help ease the burden of high payments in the colder months, and certain low-income households and pensioners qualify for it¹. Two groups of people are currently eligible¹:

Each energy supplier has its own eligibility criteria for the Broader group, which are approved by the regulator Ofgem¹.

The consultation follows Chancellor Rishi Sunak extending eligibility to the Warm Home Discount by almost a third more people in the UK, allowing three million households to benefit from it, and plans to increase it by £10¹. The government announced changes would be coming to the Warm Home Discount last month, such as allowing 750,000 households, including people receiving housing benefit, to receive it¹.

Why it matters for households

The proposals concern households in Scotland that are not currently eligible for the rebate, and the 50,000 additional households would only receive it if the consultation leads to the change¹. The increase from £140 to £150 would put the Scottish rebate on the same footing as the planned rate in England and Wales from October 2022¹. The extension to 2026 would keep the discount running in Scotland beyond its current period¹. The consultation also covers smaller energy suppliers in Scotland, which would mean customers of those suppliers could qualify¹.

The timing matters because energy bills are expected to climb significantly once more when the next price cap level comes into force in October, with annual payments already reaching £1,971 for a typical home¹. Households that fall into the Core group receive the discount automatically on their bill, while those in the Broader group have to apply through their energy provider¹. The consultation does not change the position for households elsewhere in the UK, where separate changes announced last month cover 750,000 households, including people receiving housing benefit¹.

What happens next

The consultation is open now and will close on 22 May 2022¹. No date has been reported for a government response or for when any change would take effect in Scotland.