WHD rebate value increases to £150 for SY12

The Warm Home Discount rebate increased from £140 to £150 for Scheme Year 12 (SY12), which runs from 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023, according to Ofgem's annual report on the scheme¹. The same report states that annual support is being provided for around 750,000 additional households, and that the threshold for compulsory supplier participation fell from a minimum domestic customer base of 150,000 to 50,000¹.

The change follows the Energy White Paper, published in December 2020, which set out plans to extend and reform the Warm Home Discount from 2022 onwards¹. From SY12 the scheme is separated into two, one for England and Wales and a separate one for Scotland¹. In May 2022 the government published its response to the consultation on implementing the scheme in Scotland from 2022 to 2026¹.

The report covers the previous scheme year, SY11, which ran from 25 June 2021 to 31 March 2022¹. In that year suppliers delivered approximately £359.4 million in eligible support, including £140 rebates to 2.32 million vulnerable households¹. Of that, just under 960,000 low-income pensioners received Core Group rebates worth £134.3 million, and almost 1.34 million customers in or at risk of fuel poverty received Broader Group rebates worth £187.4 million¹. Suppliers also spent a combined £34.8 million across 40 Industry Initiatives¹. Since the scheme began in 2011, £3.5 billion has been spent supporting vulnerable consumers through rebates and Industry Initiatives¹.

Source: Ofgem Warm Home Discount Annual Report 2021-2022¹

On compliance, Ofgem found that all suppliers reporting end of year compliance for SY11 met their individual spending obligations and all but one over-delivered¹. Several suppliers had minor contraventions, mostly short delays to customers receiving rebates, which Ofgem said were not substantial enough to affect overall compliance¹. One supplier, Utility Warehouse, submitted its end of year report after the deadline¹.

"In the current scheme year (SY12), which runs from 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023, the rebate value has increased from £140 to £150 and annual support for around 750,000 additional households is being provided."

The report also records that 24 suppliers were obligated at the start of SY11, but seven subsequently exited the energy market and failed to report compliance, leaving 17 participating at the end of the year¹. Of those, 12 were compulsorily obligated, three were smaller obligated suppliers and two joined voluntarily¹. Smaller obligated suppliers and volunteers can only take part in the Core Group element¹.

Why it matters for households

The rebate is a direct deduction from an electricity bill, so a £10 increase is £10 less to find elsewhere in a household budget. The lower participation threshold means more suppliers must offer the discount, which widens the number of households able to claim through their supplier. Eligibility rules differ between the Core Group and Broader Group, and the discount is separate from the Winter Fuel Payment. For a household weighing up bill support against other schemes, the grants and schemes hub sets out how the discount sits alongside insulation and heating programmes such as ECO4 and the Great British Insulation Scheme. A rebate lowers a bill for one year; measures that cut consumption change a home's standing energy use, which is the part a household controls.

What happens next

The report states that the SY11 interim reconciliation ran between February and March 2022, with the final reconciliation due to be finalised by the end of January 2023¹. Ofgem said it will monitor supplier performance throughout SY12¹. The report does not give a date for publication of SY12 compliance results.

Sources1 cited

1. Warm Home Discount (WHD) Annual Report 2021-2022, ofgem.gov.uk