Make direct payments to energy customers eligible for Warm Home Discount Scheme
- 18 Signatures
(Estimated Final Signatures: 29 - 1 added in the past 24hrs)
We want the Government to make direct payments to energy customers who are eligible for the Warm Home Discount Scheme, rather than discounts being applied to the bills of eligible customers.
Found: some energy providers who have not yet applied discounts to bills of energy customers eligible for the Warm
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what estimate she has made of the number of awards granted via the Warm Home Discount Scheme per regional electricity area since 2011.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Figures are not available for the number of households receiving Warm Home Discounts by regional electricity area. National level information on the number of households receiving Warm Home Discounts since 2011 can be found in Table 17 of the Warm Home Discount data tables (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/warm-home-discount-statistics-2022-to-2023).
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how many Warm Home Discounts were provided in each region in each year since 2022.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The number of households receiving Warm Home Discounts (WHD) for each devolved administration and regions of England from 2022 to 2023 can be found in Table 2 of the Warm Home Discount data tables (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/warm-home-discount-statistics-2022-to-2023 ).
Figures for Scotland only cover households receiving WHD through Core Group. These figures therefore only cover part of the WHD scheme in Scotland. Ofgem will publish figures for the Broader Group in due course.
Asked by: Selaine Saxby (Conservative - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how much has been spent through the Warm Home Discount scheme by parliamentary constituency since its creation.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Department published statistics on the Warm Home Discount (WHD) for the first time in 2023:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/warm-home-discount-statistics-2022-to-2023
Table 17 in the published tables shows the number of households and the total cost of those households who received the WHD, by Core Group type, since 2011/12 when the WHD was introduced, up until the latest figures for 2022/23. Table 5 provides a breakdown of the number of households and the total cost of those households who received the WHD by parliamentary constituency in 2022/23.
Figures covering 2023/24 are expected to be published on 20th June 2024.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, pursuant to the Answer of 18 March 2024 to Question 17957 on Warm Home Discount Scheme, what steps she is able to take to ensure that the regional electricity areas with the highest levels of fuel poverty are adequately financially supported, in the context of no data being collated centrally on the number of households receiving Warm Home Discounts by regional electricity area.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Warm Home Discount scheme is targeted to low-income households at risk of fuel poverty, providing a £150 rebate to eligible households. In England and Wales, the government sets the eligibility criteria and identifies households through data matching. In Scotland, the government identifies eligible low-income pensioners through data matching, meanwhile other low-income households in Scotland must apply to their energy supplier who can set their own criteria, subject to approval by Ofgem.
The government published official statistics for winter 2022/23 last year which showed, that across England, the distribution of rebates across regions is roughly consistent with the fuel poverty statistics for rates of fuel poverty. The government does not produce equivalent statistics for Scotland as fuel poverty is devolved and measured differently.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how many households received the warm home discount rebate in (a) York Central constituency (b) City of York Council and (c) England in each year since 2015.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
In 2022/23, 2.22 million households received the warm home discount rebate in England. This includes 2,792 households in the York Central constituency and 4,780 in the York unitary authority. Local area statistics were not available prior to the reform of the scheme with national level figures available in table 17.
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/warm-home-discount-statistics
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how many Warm Home Discounts have been provided in Scotland in each year since 1 January 2022.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The number of households receiving Warm Home Discounts (WHD) for each devolved administration and regions of England from 2022 to 2023 can be found in Table 2 of the Warm Home Discount data tables (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/warm-home-discount-statistics-2022-to-2023 ).
Figures for Scotland only cover households receiving WHD through Core Group. These figures therefore only cover part of the WHD scheme in Scotland. Ofgem will publish figures for the Broader Group in due course.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, with reference to the Answer of 23 June 2023 to Question 189629 on Warm Home Discount Scheme, whether the evaluation of the reformed Warm Home Discount scheme included an impact assessment.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The evaluation of the scheme is ongoing and will span three years. It is due to conclude in Autumn 2026.
The Government produced impact assessments for the consultation in 2021 on expanding and reforming the Warm Home Discount scheme in England and Wales and for the publication of the Government Response in 2022, which are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/warm-home-discount-better-targeted-support-from-2022
Asked by: Richard Foord (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Honiton)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how many people qualified for the Warm Homes Discount in winter (a) 2022-23 and (b) 2023-24.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
For 2022/23, I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave on 7 September 2023 to Question UIN 195896.
For 2023/24, the Government will publish statistics on eligibility for a rebate under the core group of the Warm Home Discount scheme in the summer. The final figures on the support provided in the 2023/24 scheme year will be confirmed in Ofgem’s annual report in late 2024 or early 2025.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of expanding the eligibility criteria for the Warm Home Discount for winter 2024-25.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
From winter 2022 the Government extended the Warm Home Discount to support more households in fuel poverty, who have low incomes and live in homes that are costly to heat. This winter we lowered the threshold for a property to be considered costly to heat and we expect over 3 million households to receive the rebate, around a million more households compared with the previous scheme prior to winter 2022.
As the scheme is funded by participating energy suppliers, we have struck a balance between supporting as many households as possible, providing meaningful support, and limiting the impact on wider consumer bills.
Energy prices have significantly fallen in the past year. We are continuing to monitor the situation and will keep options under review, including with respect to the most vulnerable households.