The Warm Home Discount (WHD)

The Warm Home Discount for Winter 2025-26

The Warm Home Discount Scheme (WHD) scheme provides a £150 annual rebate on energy bills to support low-income and vulnerable households.

To be eligible for the rebate, a qualifying recipient must be a domestic customer of an energy supplier that participates in the scheme, named on the energy bill/energy account, and in receipt of certain benefits, on the qualifying date for that year (set by the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero). For winter 2025-26, the qualifying date was 24 August 2025.

Energy suppliers with more than 1,000 domestic customers, plus other suppliers who elect to take part, must offer the discount, and recoup the costs from the energy bills of all their customers.1

The discount is normally applied to electricity bills but may be available on gas bills instead, for eligible customers whose suppliers provide both gas and electricity.

Discounts are usually provided automatically: only customers on a low income in Scotland need to apply (through their energy supplier, see below).

Expansion of the WHD

Following a government announcement in June 2025, the scheme has been expanded from October 2025 to include more households experiencing fuel poverty. The “high-cost-to-heat” eligibility threshold which applied in England and Wales has been removed allowing all households in receipt of specified means-tested benefits to qualify for the rebate until the scheme’s scheduled end in March 2026.2

The scheme will be proportionally increased in Scotland which has its own eligibility criteria: the government will consider whether the Scottish WHD Scheme could be reformed to become an automated delivery, as in England and Wales, as part of the proposals for the future of the scheme after the current regulations expire in 2026.3

Around 6 million households in Great Britain are expected to be supported through the scheme this winter (an increase of around 2.7 million on the previous year).4

Removal of the high-cost-to-heat threshold from October 2025

The scheme for 2022-23 introduced high-energy-cost eligibility criteria setting a high-cost threshold to determine whether a domestic property is considered as having high energy costs, according to its modelled energy cost score.5 The score was calculated based on a property’s type, age and floor area.

For 2023-24 and 2024-25 the criteria and guidance were revised and this included lowering the threshold for a property considered as having high energy costs, so that more households would be eligible.6

New eligibility rules for winter 2025-26

The new rules were set out in the government’s September 2025 consultation on Continuing the Warm Home Discount Scheme.7 The government’s WHD guidance for 2025-26 includes links to the qualifying benefits and will be updated when the new scheme opens.8

England and Wales

Core Group 1: households are eligible for an annual £150 rebate on their energy bill if the person named on the energy bill (or their partner, or legal representative) is in receipt of the Guarantee Credit element of Pension Credit on the qualifying date for that scheme year.

Core Group 2: Households are eligible for an annual £150 rebate on their energy bill if the person named on the energy bill (or their partner, or legal representative) was in receipt of a qualifying benefit on the qualifying date for that scheme year.

The Core Group 2 qualifying benefits for winter 2025-26 are: Housing Benefit; Income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA); Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA); Income Support; the ‘Savings Credit’ element of Pension Credit; and Universal Credit.

Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credit became legacy benefits and therefore were removed as qualifying benefits for winter 2025-26.

Scotland

Core Group: Households are eligible for an annual £150 rebate on their energy bill if the person named on the energy bill (or their partner, or legal representative) is in receipt of the Guarantee Credit element of Pension Credit on the qualifying date for that scheme year.

For the Core Group the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) works with participating energy suppliers to identify those who receive Pension Credit. Most eligible Core Group customers are identified through automatic data matching and automatically receive a rebate on their electricity or gas bill.

Broader Group: Energy suppliers required to participate in the scheme are obligated to identify Scottish customers eligible for a rebate under the Broader Group. These customers should either be in fuel poverty, or a fuel poverty risk group, and not already supported through the Core Group.

The Broader Group is not automatically data matched. Eligible households on the qualifying date for the scheme year apply directly to their energy supplier for the rebate. Applicants must meet the low-income requirement, and the vulnerability requirement to be considered for support.

The qualifying benefits are: Income Support; Income related Employment and Support Allowance; Income Based Jobseeker’s Allowance; Housing Benefit; Universal Credit. Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credit became legacy benefits and therefore were removed as qualifying benefits for winter 2025-26.

The vulnerability criteria are: a child under 5; an income related qualifying component; limited capacity for work element; a disabled child element; a disabled element.

Energy suppliers will decide how to distribute the limited funding, either on a first come first served basis or by other means.9

Industry Initiatives

In addition to discount for core and broader/low-income groups, Industry Initiatives provide wider support to customers who are in or at risk of fuel poverty through a variety of activities, such as energy advice and energy debt write-offs. This part of the WHD is administered by Ofgem.10

It is mandatory for obligated suppliers to fund Industry Initiatives in England and Wales and optional in Scotland; in Scotland, suppliers can apply to Ofgem for approval by 15 November each winter to deliver Industry Initiatives to partially offset their obligation to deliver Broader Group rebates. These measures include energy efficiency measures, energy advice, boiler and central heating replacements, financial assistance payments, debt write-off, and benefit entitlement checks.11

WHD in Northern Ireland

The Warm Home Discount scheme is not available in Northern Ireland.

Meter users and park home residents

Customers on pre-pay or pay-as-you-go meters can qualify for the discount (for example through vouchers) and should contact their electricity supplier.

Residents living in park homes typically pay their site owner for their electricity supply. They are therefore not eligible for the main Warm Home Discount scheme, as they are not direct customers of a participating electricity supplier.

Park home residents apply for the £150 payment in a different way: The Park Homes Warm Home Discount scheme 2025-26.

This scheme is for permanent residents of park homes who pay the site owner for their electricity.

Residents paying council tax and receiving certain benefits or which are on a low income are eligible. They need to apply each year.

Funding is limited and eligible applications are considered on a first come, first served basis. Only one application per household is considered.

The Park Homes Warm Home Discount Scheme is funded by participating energy suppliers as part of Industry Initiatives.

Other customers without a direct energy supply contract

Outside of the park homes scheme the WHD is not available to customers who do not pay directly for energy.

The government decided not allow households without a direct relationship with an energy supplier to receive support through the Park Homes Warm Home Discount Scheme for winter 2025 to 2026, “given the concerns raised about the impact of pressure on the existing Industry Initiatives budget”.12

WHD from 2026-27

The consultation on Continuing the Warm Home Discount Scheme sets out proposals for the scheme from 2026-27. These proposals include: the design of the core elements of the scheme; options for the next scheme period in Scotland; proposals to change the administration of the scheme; a call for evidence on Industry Initiatives; and a call for suggestions for future improvements during the next scheme period.13

Further information, help and contacts

Ofgem has published an overview of the WHD and links to further information for households and suppliers, and contacts including the Warm Home Discount helpline: 0800 030 9322.

To contact the Warm Home Discount team at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, enquirers can write to:

Warm Home Discount Scheme
PO Box 14127
Selkirk
TD7 9AH

To enquire about Industry Initiatives or any other queries you might have that can’t be answered on our web pages contact whd@ofgem.gov.uk.

For background information on the scheme, see the Library Briefing paper on the Warm Home Discount Scheme (2016).

Footnotes

• 1 The domestic customer threshold was originally 250,000: see Library briefing Warm Home Discount Scheme (2016). For 2022/23 it was 50,000: see Ofgem, Warm Home Discount (WHD)
• 2 Ofgem, Policy Update: Warm Home Discount and Contracts for Difference, 1 August 2025
• 3 Explanatory Memorandum to The Warm Home Discount (Amendment) Regulations 2025
• 4 DESNZ, Continuing the Warm Home Discount Scheme, 25 September 2025 - 20 November 2025
• 5 BEIS and DESNZ, Statutory guidance Warm Home Discount: eligibility statement (England and Wales), 4 November 2022
• 6 DESNZ, Statutory guidance Warm Home Discount: eligibility statement (England and Wales), 2023 to 2024 scheme year onward, 12 September 2023
• 7 DESNZ, Continuing the Warm Home Discount Scheme, 25 September 2025 - 20 November 2025
• 8 GOV.UK, Warm Home Discount Scheme [accessed 14 October 2025]
• 9 DESNZ, Continuing the Warm Home Discount Scheme, 25 September 2025 - 20 November 2025
• 10 Ofgem, Warm Home Discount (WHD) [accessed 6 Oct 2025]
• 11 DESNZ, Continuing the Warm Home Discount Scheme, 25 September 2025 - 20 November 2025
• 12 DESNZ, Expanding the Warm Home Discount Scheme, 2025 to 2026 - GOV.UK, 25 February 2025
• 13 DESNZ, Continuing the Warm Home Discount Scheme - GOV.UK, 25 September 2025 [close date 20 November 2025]