The government published its response to the Warm Home Discount (WHD) cost recovery consultation on 12 February 2026, confirming that energy suppliers should recover WHD costs from the unit rate for electricity and gas from 1 April 20261. The consultation ran from 1pm on 8 December 2025 to 11:59pm on 6 January 2026 and applies to England, Scotland and Wales1.
Under the current arrangement, the costs of the Warm Home Discount, given as £39 on the typical dual fuel bill, are recovered by suppliers through the standing charge, described as a fixed daily fee applied to all customers regardless of energy usage1. The consultation sought views on moving recovery to the unit rate, the per-kWh charge for electricity and gas usage, for both consumers and suppliers1.
The government received 778 responses from a variety of stakeholders, including individuals, energy suppliers, consumer groups, charities and industry bodies1. The response sets out two changes to how recovery is settled. The government will update how the supplier reconciliation process is conducted so that supplier obligations are settled against actual energy volumes supplied, and an industry wide feedback loop will be introduced so that any aggregate under or over recovery, owing to differences between forecast and actual demand in one scheme year, is corrected in the following year1.
"It confirms that energy suppliers should recover Warm Home Discount costs from the unit rate for electricity and gas from 1 April 2026."
The government response document runs to 19 pages and the original consultation document to 21 pages1. The page record shows the response was published on 12 February 2026, with a later update on 2 April 2026 stating that tables in the government response document were updated because the figures were incorrect1. The sources do not report what those corrected figures are.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Current recovery method | Standing charge, a fixed daily fee1 |
| WHD cost on typical dual fuel bill | £391 |
| New recovery method | Unit rate for electricity and gas1 |
| Start date | 1 April 20261 |
| Consultation responses | 7781 |
| Applies to | England, Scotland and Wales1 |
Why it matters for households
Moving recovery from a fixed daily charge to the per-kWh rate changes who carries the cost and how it responds to usage. A standing charge is paid at the same rate whatever a household uses, so the WHD cost is spread evenly across all customers. Under unit rate recovery, the amount a household contributes scales with the energy it consumes, so a home using more units pays more towards the scheme and a low-usage home pays less. For a household weighing its energy independence, this shifts part of the scheme's cost onto consumption rather than connection, which changes the arithmetic of reducing usage. The £39 figure on a typical dual fuel bill is the current cost under standing charge recovery; the sources do not state what the equivalent figure would be under unit rate recovery.
What happens next
The change takes effect from 1 April 20261. The government will update the supplier reconciliation process so obligations are settled against actual energy volumes supplied, and introduce an industry wide feedback loop to correct aggregate under or over recovery in the following scheme year1. The government response document was updated on 2 April 2026 to correct figures in its tables1.