Qualifying date: 23 August 2026
Switching supplier does not cost you the £150
Whoever supplies your electricity on 23 August owes you the payment, and that obligation survives you leaving. Switch after the 23rd and your old supplier still pays. The only case needing care is a switch in progress across the qualifying date itself — so either complete before it, or start after it. Full detail in switching supplier and your £150 below.
🆕What's Changed for 2026/27
The Warm Home Discount is a £150 one-off credit applied to your electricity bill over the winter. The headline change for 2026/27 is structural rather than a new expansion: in England and Wales the old Core Group 1 andCore Group 2 have been merged into a single core group.
In practice that means one list of qualifying benefits instead of two:Pension Credit (both the Guarantee Credit and Savings Credit elements), Universal Credit, Housing Benefit andincome-related Employment and Support Allowance. If you were getting one of those on 23 August 2026 and you're named on the electricity bill, you qualify.
The bigger widening happened a year earlier. Since last winter (2025/26) theproperty-cost test no longer applies — previously, means-tested benefit claimants also had to live in a home the government modelled as expensive to heat, based on property age, type and floor area. The government estimated that change brought in around 2.7 million extra households for 2025/26, and it carries on this winter: being on a qualifying benefit is enough. Source:GOV.UK eligibility statement, England & Wales 2026/27.
Turned down in an earlier year? Check again
Before winter 2025/26, a common reason for rejection was failing the property-cost test rather than the benefits test. That test no longer applies. If you're on Pension Credit, Universal Credit, Housing Benefit or income-related ESA and were told you didn't qualify under the old rules, there is a good chance you qualify now — and in England and Wales you don't need to reapply for the system to notice.
📅The 23 August 2026 Qualifying Date
Every Warm Home Discount scheme year hangs on a single qualifying date, and for 2026/27 that date is 23 August 2026. It works like a photograph: the DWP looks at your circumstances on that one day and nothing else.
Two things are captured in that snapshot:
- Which benefits you were receiving — this determines whether you qualify at all.
- Which energy supplier held your account — this determines who is on the hook for paying you.
The practical consequences follow from that. Starting a qualifying benefit claim after 23 August doesn't get you into this year's scheme, though it will count for next year. Equally, a change in circumstances after the date — coming off a benefit, moving house, changing supplier — doesn't take the £150 away from you. Once you're captured in the snapshot, you're in.
If you think you might be entitled to Pension Credit or another qualifying benefit and haven't claimed, this is the deadline that should focus the mind. Pension Credit claims can be backdated by up to three months, which in some cases can pull you back over the qualifying date — worth asking about directly rather than assuming either way.
✅Who Qualifies for the £150
In England and Wales there is now a single core group, paid automatically. Scotland has its own rules, and which group you fall into there decides whether the money arrives automatically or whether you have to go and ask for it.
For 2026/27 the old Core Groups 1 and 2 have been merged into one core group. You qualify if, on 23 August 2026, you received Pension Credit (either the Guarantee Credit or Savings Credit element), Universal Credit, Housing Benefit or income-related Employment and Support Allowance. There's no property-cost test — that was dropped from winter 2025/26 — so the benefit alone is enough. Income Support, income-based Jobseeker's Allowance and tax credits aren't on the 2026/27 list.
Scotland runs its own rules. You get the discount automatically if you or your partner get Pension Credit, get extra Universal Credit because of a disability or health condition (yours or your child's), or get a disability or pensioner premium with income-related ESA or a Support for Mortgage Interest loan — or if you look after a child under 5 and are unemployed on Universal Credit, get income-related ESA, or have a Support for Mortgage Interest loan. If you're not in that core group, you need to apply directly to your electricity supplier under the Broader Group, and suppliers can set their own extra criteria. The scheme reopens in October 2026, so apply as soon as your supplier's opens.
Two conditions apply on top of the group rules. The benefit recipient — or their partner as notified to the DWP, or a legal representative — has to be named on the electricity bill on 23 August 2026, and the discount applies to a domestic electricity account — which is why it is described as coming off your electricity bill even for dual-fuel customers. If you're a renter with bills included in your rent, there's no energy account in your name for the DWP to match against, and the discount generally can't be paid.
📮How to Get It — and When You Need to Act
For most people the honest answer is: do nothing. In England and Wales the DWP cross-matches its benefit records against energy supplier account data, works out who qualifies, and instructs the supplier to apply the credit. There is no form.
The parts that do need attention:
- Check the name on your energy account. The match is made against the benefit claimant's name. If the account is in a partner's or former partner's name and the benefit isn't, the match can fail silently.
- Make sure your supplier has your correct address and account details — a recent house move is the other common reason a match doesn't land.
- In Scotland, apply. Broader Group funding is finite and goes first come, first served. Diarise your supplier's scheme opening rather than waiting to be contacted.
- Open the letter. If the DWP can't confirm your details automatically it writes asking you to call a helpline by a stated deadline — miss it and the discount is lost even though you qualified.
Beware the scam season
Warm Home Discount texts and emails asking you to "claim your £150" via a link and enter bank details are a recurring autumn scam. The genuine process for England and Wales does not ask you to apply online, and it never asks for your bank details — the money comes off your energy bill, it isn't paid into an account. If you get a message like that, ignore the link and contact your supplier directly.
🗓️When You'll Actually Be Paid
The gap between qualifying in August and being paid in November or later is deliberate — it takes months to reconcile DWP benefit data against millions of energy accounts. It does mean the £150 usually arrives after the coldest part of your first winter bill, so it's best thought of as a credit that softens the January statement rather than money you can spend on heating in October.
If you pay by direct debit, the credit reduces your account balance rather than your monthly payment, so you may not notice it unless you look. It's worth checking your account in December and asking your supplier to review your monthly amount once the credit lands — otherwise you can end up building a balance you've already been given.
🔄Does Switching Supplier Cost You the £150?
Short answer: no.
The supplier you are with on 23 August 2026 carries the obligation, and leaving them doesn't cancel it. Switch after that date and your old supplier still owes you the £150 — they credit your final bill or send it on. Switch and complete before the qualifying date and your new supplier picks it up instead. Either way the money is yours.
The one case that genuinely needs care is a switch still in progress across 23 August. Supplier records can lag the actual transfer by a couple of weeks, so it isn't always obvious which account the DWP matched you to. It doesn't make you ineligible — but if a letter hasn't appeared by the end of December, call both the old and the new supplier rather than just one.
This matters because the fear of losing the discount keeps a lot of households sitting on expensive default tariffs all winter. That's an expensive way to protect £150. The Warm Home Discount is a government scheme that every large supplier is obliged to deliver — it is not a loyalty perk, and it follows you.
The arithmetic tends to be one-sided. Staying on an expensive default tariff through a winter quarter can cost more than the discount is worth, while switching to a supplier with a cheaper standard variable rate keeps the £150 intact and adds the £50 referral credit on top.
🧩Other Help You Can Stack on Top
The Warm Home Discount doesn't rule out anything else. These are separate schemes with separate eligibility, and receiving one has no effect on the others:
Beyond the schemes above, most large suppliers run hardship funds that can clear energy debt for customers in genuine difficulty, and both Octopus and others offer free energy-saving kit and home visits to vulnerable customers. Registering on the Priority Services Register costs nothing, isn't means-tested, and gets you advance notice of power cuts, priority reconnection and meter reading help — worth doing regardless of whether you qualify for anything else.
The one piece of help arriving for everyone this winter is the cut in VAT on electricity to 0% since 1 October, which needed no application at all — though it landed on the same day as the new price cap, which takes a good chunk of it straight back.
✅Verdict — Check Before 23 August, Then Forget About It
Verdict: The work is all front-loaded — and there isn't much of it.
The £150 Warm Home Discount for winter 2026/27 turns on your circumstances on 23 August 2026. In England and Wales it's automatic, the two core groups are now one, and since last winter the property-cost test no longer applies — being on Pension Credit, Universal Credit, Housing Benefit or income-related ESA is enough, so if you were rejected under the old rules, check again. In Scotland, if you're not in the automatic core group, apply to your supplier as soon as its scheme opens. The money arrives as bill credit between November and 31 March. And switching supplier doesn't cost you it, whichever side of the qualifying date you move.
Since the discount follows you regardless, the supplier underneath it is a free choice — and that's where the bigger money is. Octopus Energy is the UK's largest supplier with 7.3 million households, has been Which? Recommended for 9 consecutive years, holds a 4.8/5 Trustpilot rating from 800,000+ reviews and charges no exit fees on its variable tariffs (its 12M Fixed charges £50 per fuel to leave early). Switch via our referral link and £50 free credit lands on top of your Warm Home Discount. Compare every Octopus tariff to see which suits your winter usage.