warm home discount scheme

john539

Bryando wrote: »

Last year British Gas asked for a letter from the DWP saying I was on benefit between two dates. DWP said they could not give such a letter just a general letter saying I got the benefit.

Result. Lost out

British Gas told me recently that only 10% will be asked for this letter, fingers crossed am not within the 10%. As alot of folk missed out last year.

I e-mailed my MP last year regarding it and never got back. Why o why can the DWP not supply the required letter?

There is clearly problem.

DWP & energy companies should have agreed how a sample of claims are checked.

I would complain to OFGEM who regulate the scheme.

Ferris

the concept of an eligibility date is what is causing the majority of the problems, it seems. if you receive pension credit in the summer then you get help in the winter.

however, as the eligibility date is july 21st and the letters confirming eligibility do not go out until september/october/november, by the time you find out there's an issue with eligibility (e.g. because they have changed the rules without telling anyone) you are necessarily rendered ineligible.

the DWP are generally very good at keeping people up to date with changes in their benefits, to the point of overkill at times. every winter fuel or cold weather payment, or a change in a payment even by a few pence, has a specific letter just to state the reason for the change/payment clearly.

how they thought they could justify changing the criteria without letting people know until it was much too late is beyond me. the manager i spoke to at the DWP informed me there were "thousands" of people who had been struck off the list as a result of this idiotic red tape, and their response to a request to make it right was "nothing we can do. there's always next year".

it's a scandal, it really is.

wayne0

Ferris wrote: »

just for future reference, i've been on the phone for the past two hours to both parties of clowns in this WHD farce. the upshot is that even though my mum is eligible, was eligible on the qualifying date, and desperately needs the money, there is no way for her to claim it because my name was on the bill in july.

the fact that my name was also on the bill in march, last time she was paid WHD does not even seem to register in their game of passing the buck and outright lying.

i would have thought it wouldn't be allowed for a government body to change the rules for a benefit without letting the beneficiaries know in advance, but there you go.

DWP said i had to speak to EON. EON said i had to speak to the DWP. both sides lied about there being a secret, unannounced change in eligibility criteria. EON said changing the bill payer's name now would sort the problem out. DWP said nothing i do could sort the problem out.

clowns and liars, the whole lot of them.

it states on the WHDS that the bill has to be in the claimant or their partners name... (if you were your mothers "power of attorney" etc then i guess you could argue on this ground? but... its pretty clear...)
TBF: its best to always keep bills in the name of those who use them / are legally obliged to pay them. - i pay all my bills at home, so they are all in my name... but just because i paid my dads bill online, i wouldnt change his gas bill to my name...

btw: the WHDS is a payment in lieu of electricity.. is this account in your mothers name or yours?... also, is the bill in the name of ""MR SMITH" which could of been your mothers husband... and you'd simply neglected to change the name... or is it "Mr William Smith" which is your full name... if you get my drift...

Ferris

wayne0 wrote: »

it states on the WHDS that the bill has to be in the claimant or their partners name... (if you were your mothers "power of attorney" etc then i guess you could argue on this ground? but... its pretty clear...)
TBF: its best to always keep bills in the name of those who use them / are legally obliged to pay them. - i pay all my bills at home, so they are all in my name... but just because i paid my dads bill online, i wouldnt change his gas bill to my name...

btw: the WHDS is a payment in lieu of electricity.. is this account in your mothers name or yours?... also, is the bill in the name of ""MR SMITH" which could of been your mothers husband... and you'd simply neglected to change the name... or is it "Mr William Smith" which is your full name... if you get my drift...

it states the bit in bold this year, but it did not state the same last year. in fact there's a feasbility and impact report about WHD online produced for the government by the CAB before WHD was introduced where they argue strongly against restricting the WHD to the bill payer's name, citing examples of those who would lose out as a result.

it seems that the energy companies/OFGEM/the government followed this sensible advice for the first year, but then silently changed the rules for this year's payments, so that thousands of people only found out once it was too late.

as for the name on the account, we contacted all the utility companies to get things changed over to my mother's name, and we naturally assumed they had been. all the bills arrive online and i pay with my credit card once a quarter just as i used to do for my father, so the first i knew that the account was in my name was when i received a junk mail letter from eon (about insulation grants or something) this summer.

i never once requested the account to be in my name. it should have been in my mum's name two and a half years ago. i assume they looked at their records of which credit card was being used to pay the bills, and changed it to my name as a result. as it wasn't causing a problem, it seemed too much hassle to change it.

they screwed up, she's losing out, and there's nothing anyone can do about it.

evilbunnyhahaha

hi, sorry to nudge in here, but my mother told me about this, thinking I could claim it too as i receive Child tax credit, but from the little I can gather its only for those on pension credits. Yet when i explain this to mum she has a rant! ha, could someone clear this up for me? I'm pretty sure its for those on pension credits, am I right? thanks

evilbunnyhahaha

oh, and ferris, BG did that to me too, i was paying on my account a direct debit for a friends gas. she put the money in, then it went out, no problem. but after 8 months of this she suddenly started getting bills in my name! we were both very confused as of course neither of us had changed it. we called, complained, and got the grand total of £5 in way of saying sorry. if i were you, i'd complain and see where you can get, its very unfair on your mother just because they ASSUMED it was your bills. but in future, ask them to put a note on the system saying you pay on behalf of your mother, but it needs to be her name on the bills

wayne0

there is a wider group evil bunny, which varies between energy companies...

if i were with british gas i would qualify, i do not qualify with nPower...

google the WHDS with your supplier...

wayne0

Energy suppliers participating in the Warm Home Discount Scheme


The electricity suppliers involved in this scheme are:

• Atlantic
• British Gas
• EDF Energy
• E.ON
• Equipower
• Manweb
• M&S Energy
• npower
• Sainsbury's Energy
• Scottish Gas
• Scottish Hydro
• ScottishPower
• Southern Electric
• SSE
• Swalec
• Utility Warehouse

Scheme suppliers

<li sizset="0" sizcache="9">

Atlantic[External link] - 0800 300 111 <li sizset="1" sizcache="9">British Gas[External link] <li sizset="2" sizcache="9">EDF Energy[External link] <li sizset="3" sizcache="9">E.ON[External link] - 0800 051 1480 <li sizset="4" sizcache="9">Npower[External link] <li sizset="5" sizcache="9">Scottish Hydro[External link] - 0800 300 111 <li sizset="6" sizcache="9">Southern Electric[External link] - 0800 300 111 <li sizset="7" sizcache="9">ScottishPower[External link] <li sizset="8" sizcache="9">SSE[External link] - 0800 300 111
[*]Swalec[External link] - 0800 300 111
http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/funding/whds/whd_broader/whd_broader.aspx

wayne0

http://www.npower.com/spreading_warmth/Content/WarmHomeDiscount/index.htm

Broader Group
npower customers are eligible for the Broader Group Warm Home Discount if they are in receipt of any of the following:

• Income Support
• Income-based Jobseeker's Allowance
• Income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)

Who also have any of following:

• Child Tax Credit
• a disability premium, enhanced disability premium or sever disability premium
• Disability Living Allowance (For an adult or child within the household)
• Long term Incapacity Benefit
• In addition if anyone has Child Tax Credit that includes a disability or severe disability element, a child under five living with them, or a disabled child premium – However it is likely they are also already in receipt of Child Tax Credit

is it just me, or does this read that if you have a child who is under five and you get CTC you are elegible? or do you still need to be in reciept of IS/JSA/ESA?

Horseunderwater

The way I read it is that you have to have one of the 3 qualifying benefits first and foremost, then underneath the further benefits too. But I could be wrong. It is a bit confusing to say the least. Maybe somebody who is in exactly this position will be able to confirm more?
Normally if you were not working and got income support it would more than likely be because you had a child under 5 living with you and you would therefor get full CTC anyway, so would qualify if that makes sense. As you'd be classed a venerable household. Were I with N power then I'd get it as I get ESA IR support group with EDP/DLA/CTC. So if you do no get one of the 1st benefits, then you may not qualify for it. All you can do is ring them up to ask. However since we have now gone past 31st December I would think that this years application process has now closed.