Warm Home Discount

sarar

I have had a letter to say that I am entitled the £150 Warm Home Discount because I am on Universal Credit and it will go straight to my Energy Supplier, but my name is not on the bill, will I still get it?  

It would be nice to think I would still get it as I live with my parents who are in their 80s and my carers and have both lost their payments?

Ildhund

This could get dodgy. The electricity supplier probably won't be able to apply the discount unless the awardee's name is the name on the bill. I would contact the WHD helpline (0800 030 9324) and explain the situation to them. In some means-test cases, it's enough to be living with an eligible person, but each scheme has different rules. When you call, it might be a good idea to have the letter to hand along with the most recent electricity bill.

Spoonie_Turtle

Ildhund said:

This could get dodgy. The electricity supplier probably won't be able to apply the discount unless the awardee's name is the name on the bill. I would contact the WHD helpline (0800 030 9324) and explain the situation to them. In some means-test cases, it's enough to be living with an eligible person, but each scheme has different rules. When you call, it might be a good idea to have the letter to hand along with the most recent electricity bill.

Nothing dodgy about it.
In the couple of years since the scheme changed in England and Wales, it appears they've identified eligible properties with eligible people living in them, and allocated funding for the accounts attached to those properties.  Then applied the credit to that account, regardless of whose name is on it.  
Before the scheme changed it was a requirement for the eligible person's name (or appointee) to be on the account, but in reality not any more with the automatic matching.

I certainly would not bother phoning up.  The people on the helpline have already established a track record of not being helpful, and in many cases giving incorrect advice.

Callow64

My daughter who lives with me got the letter the other day. I didn't think it would apply , however I have just had an email from Octopus saying the discount has been applied to the household account which is in my name.

Ildhund

Spoonie_Turtle said:
  

I certainly would not bother phoning up.  The people on the helpline have already established a track record of not being helpful, ...

I called them last week and ended up talking to a very personable young man. At one stage he asked me what my MPAN was, and I told him (one of those numbers I salted away in memory years ago). He was impressed, and so was I when I asked him if he knew what an MPAN is. He did. We got everything sorted out quickly and easily, so I can't fault the service.

It's a fact that we're much more likely to hear from dissatisfied customers than satisfied ones. This skews the picture, so we should perhaps be circumspect when tarring a whole call centre with the same brush. Where do you see this 'track record'?

Spoonie_Turtle

Ildhund said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:
  

I certainly would not bother phoning up.  The people on the helpline have already established a track record of not being helpful, ...

I called them last week and ended up talking to a very personable young man. At one stage he asked me what my MPAN was, and I told him (one of those numbers I salted away in memory years ago). He was impressed, and so was I when I asked him if he knew what an MPAN is. He did. We got everything sorted out quickly and easily, so I can't fault the service.

It's a fact that we're much more likely to hear from dissatisfied customers than satisfied ones. This skews the picture, so we should perhaps be circumspect when tarring a whole call centre with the same brush. Where do you see this 'track record'?

From multiple posts here and elsewhere in WHD season from the last two years.  Whilst correct that we of course see more people with problems than not, the fact that the helpline has multiple times given downright wrong advice is not good.  People should be able to trust the helpline and they can't, because it's pot luck whether they get someone helpful like you did, someone benign but useless, or someone harmful. 

(Although granted, the WHD helpline giving wrong advice costs people a lot less than the welfare benefits call lines giving wrong advice.  At most people are losing ~£50-60 getting unnecessary EPCs plus the £150 WHD, whereas people have lost many £000s thanks to the latter.)