Warm Home Discount Scheme 2023

sueky65

This is my first time posting anything so, if I’m in the wrong place, please feel free to direct me to where I need to be! Anyhow my experience with this years WHD has been so confusing and stressful that I’m wondering if it’s happened to anyone else? 

I am eligible for the WHD and have been since it first came into existence, I have a smart meter which I top up via my mobile and have both my gas and electricity accounts with British Gas - last year I received my letter from the DWP stating that I was eligible and I’m pretty sure that on that letter there was either a QR code or bar code that I needed to take to a Pay Zone outlet so that they could apply it to my fuel account - I understood that ordinarily the credit would be applied to my electricity meter but it did state on the WHD letter that if you have dual fuel account with the same company you can request it to be paid onto the gas account which is exactly what I did - credited to my gas account no problem - this year, when I received my confirmation letter from the DWP it stated the same thing as last year - so I contacted British Gas and explained that I would appreciate it if they could do the same as last year and could I have the credit on my gas account instead of the electricity - I was told that that would be fine, not a problem but that this year the credit would be sent direct to the meter and that I wouldn’t “need to leave the house, we will apply it straight to your chosen account” - needless to say this didn’t happen - it was credited to my electricity account this morning! I phoned British Gas - there’s nothing they can do apparently but blamed DWP as “they should have been aware of your preferred method of credit’ so they told me to take it up with them which I did - only to be told by them that it’s down to the fuel company not them - phoned British Gas back and they then changed their story to “because you’ve got a smart meter it’s automatically applied to the electricity account and can’t be changed” so I told them that I still have the same meter as I did last year, nothings changed! So I’m now stuck with the credit on my electricity account and, whilst I am extremely grateful for this payment, I wonder if anyone has had their credit successfully transferred from their electricity to their gas account and how did you do it?
Many apologies for the long winded post!

Newcad

Assiming that you weren't in debt that has swallowed up the WHD then ask BG to refund you the credit on your account either by cheque or by a voucher/code to put credit on the meter.

They won't/can't do a cheque, because it's the WHD, but I would not be at all surprised if they then say that they can add the credit directly to a PAYG smart meter so a voucher isn't needed, or send you a code that you can use to top up the meter yourself.

Even if they/you put it on the electricity meter you can then use the money saved putting credit on electricity towards gas.

Spoonie_Turtle

Yeah, this is British Gas problem not a DWP problem, it's down to your supplier how to credit the WHD. 
(I'll never be a defender of DWP but this particular issue genuinely is nothing to do with them.)

Edit: sorry I can't help re: prepayment meters.

sueky65

Thank you for the replies - BG refused to refund the payment so I’m stuck with it on my electricity account, I’m grateful for the fact I received help in the first place so can’t complain really!

poppy12345

sueky65 said:

Thank you for the replies - BG refused to refund the payment so I’m stuck with it on my electricity account, I’m grateful for the fact I received help in the first place so can’t complain really!

You can do what was advised here.

Newcad said:

Even if they/you put it on the electricity meter you can then use the money saved putting credit on electricity towards gas.