Confusion re Warm home Discount Scheme

swingaloo

Today I had an email telling me that my Warm Home Discount of £150 had been paid to my supplier. The trouble is that Im sure I do not qualify for the payment. Im not on low income or Pension Credits so Im confused as to why I would get the payment.

My son who lives with me is on UC and got a letter telling him he was due to get the payment but the gas and electric are in my name not his. According to the rules to qualify the bill has to be in the name of the person getting the payment so we assumed that even though he got a letter saying he qualified no payment would be received as he does not have  gas or electric in his name.

So I shouldn't get it but have done and son has a letter saying he is entitled to it when he isn't. Just baffled. 
To make matters worse the email I got tells me it will be paid to my supplier but names the supplier as one I changed from a couple of weeks ago!

Spoonie_Turtle

That makes sense, in practice it seems they essentially match claimants' addresses to MPANs so your household is eligible for the payment.

(I don't know if the purported requirement for names to match is a holdover from when most people in all of the UK had to apply and suppliers had to get DWP to approve, although it probably still makes sense for Scotland.)

It will have been allocated to whomever was your supplier on the qualifying date in August, so it is their responsibility to get it to you.

chapea

Are you an appointee for your son. If so it will be paid to your electricity account

i queried this last year as although low income I did not qualify but my daughter did

it does say on the letter that if you manage  their benefits (appointee) it will be paid to your energy account 

born_again

swingaloo said:

Today I had an email telling me that my Warm Home Discount of £150 had been paid to my supplier. The trouble is that Im sure I do not qualify for the payment. Im not on low income or Pension Credits so Im confused as to why I would get the payment.

My son who lives with me is on UC and got a letter telling him he was due to get the payment but the gas and electric are in my name not his. According to the rules to qualify the bill has to be in the name of the person getting the payment so we assumed that even though he got a letter saying he qualified no payment would be received as he does not have  gas or electric in his name.

So I shouldn't get it but have done and son has a letter saying he is entitled to it when he isn't. Just baffled. 
To make matters worse the email I got tells me it will be paid to my supplier but names the supplier as one I changed from a couple of weeks ago!

There is a qualifying date for the payment (sometime in Aug I think) & payment goes to who you were with at that point. They should pass it onto your new supplier now.

swingaloo

Thank you for the replies.one of the 

To clarify, I am not an appointee for my son.  I just assumed we would be treated separately as I have never claimed anything but my pension. My husband gets PIP and a small pension as he was retired on medical grounds but does not qualify for the payment.

They do seem to have tied my sons UC to the household bill but according to the rules I read  one of the qualifying criteria was that his name must be on the bill. Perhaps the new supplier may pick up on this and the payment get reversed or perhaps I should query it with them. Its nice to get it but I dont want to break any rules.

Marmaduke123

This happened to me a couple of years ago. My son was on Universal Credit at the time, his name wasn't on the bill although he lived with me. I wasn't on a low income. I queried it with my electricity supplier but they just told me they had been instructed to pay it. There didn't seem to be any way of correcting things, I'm sorry it's still happening, it seems wrong. I suppose you could give it to charity but I'm afraid I didn't!

Alnat1

I think I read somewhere that the "name on the bill" rule had been changed and it's now the based on the address of the qualifying person. The energy account for that address gets credited, doesn't matter what name is on it.