{"id":366252,"date":"2026-01-12T14:38:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T14:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/366252\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T14:38:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T14:38:11","slug":"thousands-of-britons-set-to-receive-150-free-energy-payment-this-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/366252\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands of Britons set to receive \u00a3150 free energy payment this month"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thousands of UK households are set to receive a \u00a3150 payment to help cover energy costs during the winter period.<\/p>\n

Utilita has begun issuing Warm Home Discount payments to eligible smart prepay customers.<\/p>\n

The energy supplier confirmed payments started on January 7 and said it expects all qualifying customers to receive the money by the end of January.<\/p>\n

The \u00a3150 payment is applied directly to customers\u2019 electricity meters rather than being paid into bank accounts.<\/p>\n

This means households do not need to wait for a cheque or bank transfer and is applied automatically.<\/p>\n

Eligibility is assessed by the Government using Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) records, with households meeting the criteria seeing the credit added directly to their meter balance.<\/p>\n

The Warm Home Discount scheme has been expanded this year to include significantly more households, with an additional 2.7 million homes now eligible compared with previous years.<\/p>\n

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero removed the high energy usage requirement for claimants in England and Wales.<\/p>\n

Under the previous rules, households receiving certain benefits had to demonstrate higher-than-average energy costs to qualify.<\/p>\n

\"Energy<\/p>\n

Eligible UK households are set to receive energy bill support this month<\/p>\n

| <\/p>\n

GETTY<\/p>\n

As a result of the changes, the total number of households expected to receive the Warm Home Discount is estimated at around 6.1 million.<\/p>\n

The expansion means more people on means-tested benefits will receive help with winter energy bills automatically.<\/p>\n

To qualify for the 2025\u201326 scheme year, households needed to be receiving eligible benefits on August 24, 2025.<\/p>\n

Qualifying benefits include Universal Credit, Housing Benefit and Income Support.<\/p>\n

Income-based Jobseeker\u2019s Allowance and income-related Employment and Support Allowance are also included.<\/p>\n

Households receiving Pension Credit are eligible under the scheme.<\/p>\n

This applies to those receiving either the guarantee credit element or the savings credit element.<\/p>\n

\"Smart<\/p>\n

The payment is credited to customers\u2019 electricity accounts by default<\/p>\n

| <\/p>\n

GETTY<\/p>\n

Customers do not need to contact their supplier or complete additional paperwork.<\/p>\n

In previous years, some suppliers applied the discount in instalments across the winter period.<\/p>\n

However, Utilita confirmed it is paying the full \u00a3150 as a single lump sum this year.<\/p>\n

Customers who use gas can transfer the credit using the Transfer Credit option within the My Utilita app.<\/p>\n

If a customer has outstanding debt on their energy account, the discount is applied to clear that balance first.<\/p>\n

\"Lady<\/p>\n

The discount for Utilita customers will kick in at the end of January<\/p>\n

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GETTY<\/p>\n

Utilita has advised customers with smart meters to contact the supplier if the credit has not appeared by January 28.<\/p>\n

The supplier has also warned that mismatches between customer details and DWP records can delay payments.<\/p>\n

Even minor spelling differences in names can prevent the automatic credit from being applied.<\/p>\n

Customers are encouraged to ensure their account details match official records to avoid issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thousands of UK households are set to receive a \u00a3150 payment to help cover energy costs during the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366253,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,1294,5363,2222,50,6215,2331,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-366252","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-energy-bills","11":"tag-money","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-pension-credit","14":"tag-sgg","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}