Warm home discount v ESA

Shilo54

Hello this is my first post on the forum, as a new member joining today. I have a question that I've not been able to find an answer to by searching on here and have decided to post it up in the hope that others may be able to advise me.

My situation is that I am disabled, I currently receive DLA at 2 different rates: the higher rate for mobility and medium rate for care. I am wheelchair bound and have not worked since 1991. I suffer with secondary progressive MS.

Up until the fairly recent change of name/status from Incapacity benefit to ESA I still qualified for the warm home discount scheme offered by my energy supplier - British Gas. I recently changed my supplier from British Gas to NPower after doing a price comparison which showed a big yearly saving of approx' £200.00. I never considered I would then lose my warm home discount, but now I have.

NPower now say I don't qualify for it because I do not meet any of their criteria. When asking what that was, I was told it is because my ESA is contribution based. As already mentioned I have not worked as a result of my condition since 1991. If I had stayed with British Gas I would still continue to receive the discount, as I have a letter to confirm they wanted me to sign up for year 3 of the discount scheme. So by changing to NPower I am currently worse off by £135.00 a year.

My circumstances haven't changed in the past few years and my benefit payments are the same amount now under ESA as they were when I received Incapacity benefit. NPower advised me to contact the benefits office to find out for myself why I no longer qualified for the discount, as they could only pay out if I met certain criteria from a list of guidelines generated by the government/benefits office and currently nothing on their list applies to me.

I called the benefit office twice to ask why now I cannot get the discount,; the first time I was bluntly told I didn't qualify because of my contributions. I asked what contributions he meant as was told National Insurance. I was quite upset by the tone and manner of the first advisor so called again and was then told I wouldn't qualify for it unless NPower had a special dispensation regarding my condition and that was as much help as they offered...basically directing me back towards NPower who are aware of my disability and state that the stumbling block is the contributions? The second advisor was much more helpful and patient with their explanation although, unable to resolve anything.

No I don't know who to turn to for a definitive answer or to appeal to.

This letter has been typed by my son as I am unable to and any reply to questions or advice given by yourselves may take a couple of days, when he will be here again to reply for me.

Thank you Shirley.

Cyclamen

This is quite common on a forum i use.. there are set rules from the government of who the companies must use to offer the discount to, then some companies offer to extra people as well.

As you can only get income related ESA for 1 year if in wrag group .. that is a chunk of people inelligible.

I spent ages trying to find out from EDF if i would be eligible. I get contributions rate of ESA (from my NI payments) but my letters states i would be entitled to a lower amount of income had i not got enough contributions. So my simple questions was to ask if i would be eligible still... they couldn't answer me.. just told me to fill the form in and see.. still waiting for an explanation.

In the meantime extra jumpers and watching the thermostat to budget .

Indie_Kid

Question:

You say you receive mid rate care. Do you live alone / does anyone claim carers allowance for you? If you live alone or are classed as and no-one claims carers allowance for looking after you, you can claim the severe disability premium. This is income based and should entitle you to the warm home discount.

The_Boltonian

This is similar to my question the other day.

If you are getting a bill £200 cheaper then you are still better off than a £135 discount.

I will be changing to OVO as I will be saving c.300 on a fixed rate.

Hope that is OK as a response.

KxMx

Cyclamen wrote: »

This is quite common on a forum i use.. there are set rules from the government of who the companies must use to offer the discount to, then some companies offer to extra people as well.

As you can only get income related ESA for 1 year if in wrag group .. that is a chunk of people inelligible.

I spent ages trying to find out from EDF if i would be eligible. I get contributions rate of ESA (from my NI payments) but my letters states i would be entitled to a lower amount of income had i not got enough contributions. So my simple questions was to ask if i would be eligible still... they couldn't answer me.. just told me to fill the form in and see.. still waiting for an explanation.

In the meantime extra jumpers and watching the thermostat to budget .

CB ESA if in WRAG is paid for 1 year only, not IR ESA.

OP your IB was contributions based, which is why you now get contributions based ESA. All the qualifying benefits for this grant now are means tested so you have no entitlement on those grounds. If your supplier doesn't extend that criteria themselves then I'm afraid you're out of luck. At least the switch has saved you a decent amount of money even without the grant on top.