Warm Home Discount Annual Report: Scheme Year 13
Reports, plans and updates
- Publication date
- Scheme name
- WHD
The government introduced the Warm Home Discount (WHD) scheme in 2011 to help people on low-incomes and who are vulnerable to cold-related illness or living in fuel poverty in Great Britain.
This annual report covers activity during Scheme Year 13 (SY13: 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024). It details the scheme’s achievements, the performance of participating suppliers, and information on incidents of non-compliance.
Highlights
- During SY13 obligated suppliers spent £578.7 million supporting eligible low-income households by providing £150 rebates and through Industry Initiatives (£525.6 million was spent in England & Wales and £53.1 million in Scotland). This is an increase of 30% on the £443.8 million spent during SY12.
- Energy bill rebates of £150 were provided to 3.35 million customers in or at risk of fuel poverty (3.07 million in England & Wales and 281,258 in Scotland). This is up from a total of 2.66 million in SY12.
- Suppliers delivered a combined £76.4 million of alternative support via Industry Initiatives in SY13, up from £44.3 million in SY12 (£65.5 million in England & Wales and £10.9 million in Scotland).
- Since the start of the scheme in 2011, a total of £4.53 billion has been spent supporting vulnerable consumers through energy bill rebates and Industry Initiatives.
- Following a Core Group underspend of £74 million in SY12, overall spend by suppliers in SY13 exceeded the scheme budget of £546 million by around £33.7 million, or 6.2%. Of this £27 million was spent on Core Group rebates - £26 million in England & Wales and £1 million in Scotland. It is expected that the remaining underspend will be utilised over the course of SY14.
- Eleven suppliers were responsible for 25 non-compliances on the England & Wales scheme, and 9 suppliers were responsible for 18 non-compliances in Scotland. These were mostly administrative non-compliances but also included Core Group and Broader Group rebates not being provided by the deadline, and suppliers not meeting their non-core spending obligations. However, the rebates involved represent 0.1% of the 3.35 million rebates provided and supplier non-core spending shortfalls are equivalent to 0.4% of the combined non-core spending obligations.
Please note: For those who wish to look at the data used in the report in more detail, a spreadsheet with this information is published alongside the report below.