Statutory guidance

Warm Home Discount: eligibility statement, England and Wales, 2026 to 2027

Published 7 August 2026

Applies to England and Wales

Introduction

This section explains the Warm Home Discount scheme in England and Wales and outlines the content of this eligibility statement.

The Warm Home Discount scheme obligates participating suppliers to provide rebates to eligible low-income households. The scheme helps households in, or at risk of, fuel poverty with direct energy bill payments as well as other financial and energy-related support. Eligibility for the Warm Home Discount in Scotland has been determined by Scottish Government ministers and is set out in the Warm Home Discount Scheme (Scotland) Regulations 2026.

As required under Regulation 10 of the Warm Home Discount (England and Wales) Regulations 2026^{[footnote 1]}, the Secretary of State for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (‘the department’) must publish an eligibility statement for each scheme year.

From scheme year 16, core group 1 and core group 2 have been merged into one ‘core group’^{[footnote 2]}. We have done this to simplify the administration of the scheme, reduce confusion and make the scheme more user friendly. This also reflects the removal of the high-cost-to-heat threshold, from scheme year 15. This statement describes the criteria used to determine eligibility for a rebate under the core group.

This statement therefore sets out:

• low-income criteria - the qualifying means tested benefits which a person must receive to meet the low-income criteria
• eligible property types - the types of properties which can be eligible for a rebate

Some of the benefits in this eligibility statement are in the process of being phased out with recipients migrating to Universal Credit. This should not preclude those applicants who are receiving those benefits on the qualifying date from being eligible for the Warm Home Discount during the migration process.

Eligibility overview

This section provides an overview of the eligibility criteria. This section sets out the qualifying benefits.

Eligible households must satisfy the following criteria on the qualifying date:

• be a customer of a participating energy supplier
• receive a qualifying means-tested benefit (as outlined below)
• have the benefit recipient (or their partner as notified to DWP, or legal representative) named on the electricity bill

The qualifying date is set by the Secretary of State and is set to be as close as possible to the date of the data-matching process, to minimise the number of changes in people’s circumstances between the qualifying date and awarding the rebates. For winter 2026 to 2027, the qualifying date is 23 August 2026.

Through data matching, the majority of eligible households will receive their rebates automatically from their energy supplier, without having to apply. Where it is not clear from the data-matching process whether a household is eligible for a rebate, for instance where we have not been able to match them with a participating energy supplier, the benefit recipient will be sent a letter explaining that they should contact the Warm Home Discount helpline to provide missing information and confirm eligibility.

The following benefits are the qualifying means-tested benefits for meeting the eligibility criteria:

• Pension Credit (both the Guaranteed element and Savings Credit) 
• Income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
• Housing Benefit
• Universal Credit

Due to the nature of the eligibility criteria, it is not possible to set exactly how many people will be eligible each scheme year, so we do not set a finite number of eligible households in this eligibility statement. Rebate numbers are determined largely by:

• the number of people in receipt of a qualifying means tested benefit on the qualifying date
• the proportion of these households who contact the Warm Home Discount helpline when advised and required to do so
• the proportion of these households who ultimately turn out to be eligible as the recipient of the benefit, their partner (as specified on the benefits record) or legal representative is named on the account of a participating electricity supplier on the qualifying date

Eligible property types

This section explains the approach to determining which property types can be eligible for a rebate.

Only households living in an eligible domestic premises may receive a rebate. Properties found to be ineligible are removed from the data-matching process.

The Warm Home Discount is paid on energy bills. To be eligible, someone who is on one of the qualifying benefits (or their partner, as specified on their benefits record, or legal representative) must be a customer of an electricity supplier and be an account holder or named on an electricity bill. For example, many people living in Park Homes receive their electricity through an intermediary, such as the site owner, rather than directly from an energy supplier. In those circumstances, they would not be eligible for the main Warm Home Discount scheme. They could be eligible for the Park Home Warm Home Discount, administered by Charis Grants, described below.

A person living permanently in a care home, including residential homes and nursing homes, would also not be eligible for a rebate, as they would not have a direct relationship with the electricity supplier for the property.

Annexes

If an annex has its own electricity supply and the person residing in the annex is in receipt of one of the qualifying means tested benefits and is named on the electricity bill, they will be eligible for the discount in 2026/2027. Similarly, even if the address refers to an annex, but the person in receipt of the qualifying means tested benefit is named on the bill for the main property, they should also be eligible.

Caravans (and similar properties)

Caravans will still be generally excluded from the scheme. The majority of caravans (as opposed to park homes, see above) are not classed as permanent residencies and require proof of council tax from a permanent residence each year to prove that they aren’t being lived in all year round. Only caravans in a residential park can be lived in permanently, but the majority of these are fuelled either by cylinder gas and/or plugging into mains from the site, therefore will not have a direct relationship with their supplier.

There may be a small number of caravans classed as permanent residences that do have a direct relationship with a supplier, where the person in residence is eligible for the discount via means tested benefits and are named on the bill. However, letters will not be sent to addresses where the property is classed as a caravan in property records. Therefore, if you are in this position, you will need to contact the Warm Home Discount helpline and provide evidence that the caravan is your sole, legal residence and you are named on the electricity bill to confirm your eligibility.

Households living in a property that is not supplied with electricity wholly or mainly for domestic purposes are also not eligible for a rebate.

Property records are removed from the data-matching process using a combination of direct analysis of the address data (for example, first lines of address) and with reference to classification codes provided within AddressBase. AddressBase is an Ordnance Survey product that provides address data in Great Britain and includes classification codes that categorise the types of addresses, allowing us to separate eligible domestic property types from non-domestic and other ineligible property types.

The Park Homes Warm Home Discount Scheme

This section explains the Park Homes Warm Home Discount Scheme and who could be eligible for a grant from the scheme administrators.

Customers living in park homes and not directly supplied with electricity may still be eligible through the Park Homes Warm Home Discount scheme. This scheme is funded by energy suppliers, who may choose to contribute to the scheme or fund other financial and energy-related measures to meet their statutory obligations under the Industry Initiatives element of the Warm Home Discount scheme.

There is finite funding available for this scheme each year, depending on what suppliers choose to fund.

The eligibility for the Park Homes Warm Home Discount scheme is decided by the scheme administrator, currently Charis Grants, and may be changed at its discretion (as long as it stays within the criteria for support defined in the Warm Home Discount regulations and within the approval for the scheme granted by Ofgem in accordance with those regulations).  

To be eligible for the Park Homes Warm Home Discount scheme in 2026/27 applicants must be a permanent resident of a park home, pay the park site owner for their electricity usage and be on a relevant qualifying benefit or demonstrate they fulfil the criteria relating to household income or fuel poverty as set out below.

The relevant qualifying benefits of the Park Homes Scheme for 2026/27, as determined by Charis Grants, are as follows:

• Pension Credit (both Guaranteed element and Savings Credit) 
• Income-related Employment & Support Allowance (ESA)
• Housing Benefit
• Universal Credit and have an income of less than £1,758 for at least one relevant assessment period

Households are also eligible where they can demonstrate to Charis Grants:

• that they are in fuel poverty or a fuel poverty risk group
• annual household income below £21,091

Universal Credit income threshold

The income threshold for the Park Homes Warm Home Discount Scheme for 2026/27 is:

Income threshold	Amount (£)
Universal Credit annual income threshold	£21,091 (relevant annual amount)
Universal Credit monthly income threshold	£1,758 (relevant periodic amount)

Once this allocated funding is spent, the scheme closes. Applications to Charis^{[footnote 3]}) for the Park Homes scheme are only open for a short period and are assessed in order of date received until the scheme closes.

1. The Warm Home Discount (England and Wales) Regulations 2026 ↩

2. Continuing the Warm Home Discount Scheme: government response ↩

3. Park Homes - Warm Home Discount Scheme - Charis ↩