Millions of households on benefits could save £100s on broadband bills

MSE_Emily

Millions of households on low incomes are missing out on average savings of almost £150 a year on their broadband bills, according to Ofcom. The industry regulator has called on providers to better advertise discounted deals for those on benefits - see a full list of available tariffs below...

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Millions of households on benefits could save £100s on broadband bills - how to check if you can get a cheaper deal

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Hatti_e

Hi
I am on ESA contribution based and have been told by BT that I do not qualify for these discounts  

Neil_Jones

I believe there is a difference between contribution ESA and so-called income-based ESA, and its usually the latter that attracts the help, not the former.  Happy to be corrected.

Likewise for Jobseeker's Allowance, where contribution based is what you get when you're out of work for up to six months and then you fall to income based where you lose a chunk of it based on savings.

JSA contribution benefits also attracts next to to "help" in most regards from most providers of, well anything basically until you fall through to income (or Universal Credit as appropriate), then you can get all the help on offer.

MandyQue

I'm on income related ESA and am interested in these discounts.  My only concern is that the speeds won't be enough for my autistic daughter, who gets very upset indeed if her youtube videos start buffering.  I'm currently on Virgin up to 100mb, to take up their offer would cut that to up to 15mb, which is a huge drop.  

steveE2

MandyQue said:

I'm on income related ESA and am interested in these discounts.  My only concern is that the speeds won't be enough for my autistic daughter, who gets very upset indeed if her youtube videos start buffering.  I'm currently on Virgin up to 100mb, to take up their offer would cut that to up to 15mb, which is a huge drop.  

Why do you think your speed will be cut to 15Mb?
There are 2 plans available upto 38Mb £15 and upto 74Mb £20 either are fine for youtube
What does https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL show as available to you?You will need to use the address checker rather than phone number.

james_smitha

or these people could better budget their money or shop more wisely

Neil_Jones

james_smitha said:

or these people could better budget their money or shop more wisely

*cough*

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61414951

james_smitha

Neil_Jones said:

james_smitha said:

or these people could better budget their money or shop more wisely

*cough*

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61414951

Neil_jones hope that you recover from your cough quickly.

I had in mind, find out when supermarkets update there short term offers.

Find out when shops do their date related reductions. Today  16Th May I got some punets of 4 peaches for 40p. Not long ago a bag of 6 apples  for 50p.

Parents might do better than only takeing 'their' one sprog to school in their car. How about takeing a friend of their sprog as well, then the other parent brings their sprog home from school in the afternoon

liz_bartun

My contract with Plusnet is coming to an end so I'm glad I saw this article when I started looking around at what offers are available.

I'm switching to BT; switching my family's SIM-only plans to them too. Total saving will be £10 per month, plus gaining FTTP and a new router and telephones.

I had to call them as 'something went wrong' while I was trying to sign up online. Even the call handler had to enter my NINO 3 times before the system would accept it for some reason.

Call handler automatically added the Alexa phone and free trial of upgraded speed and I had to stop her mid-flow to request different options that I'd seen while trying to sign up online. You can also add TV packages if you want those.

After my order had finally gone through I then couldn't set up my BTID and had to call again. Apparently it was my email address causing problems this time and I had to use a different one.

I'm hoping that is the end of the hiccups🤞

Myspanishdog3

The BT Broadband/ ESA deal is for income based benefit only. I was told that i do not qualify as i get a small pension from an old employer. I imagine lots of disappointed people will find B.T 's deal is for low income and not x incapacity like myself.