Warm Home Discount
WHD
A £150 yearly rebate for households in or at risk of fuel poverty. Domestic energy suppliers with at least 1,000 customers must pay it, and they recover the cost from all their domestic customers.
The Warm Home Discount (WHD) comes from section 9 of the Energy Act 2010, which lets the government set up schemes to reduce fuel poverty. It began in 2011. The current rules are the Warm Home Discount (England and Wales) Regulations 2026 and the Warm Home Discount (Scotland) Regulations 2026. They succeeded the 2022 Regulations, which expired on 31 March 2026, took effect on 1 April 2026 in England and Wales and 1 May 2026 in Scotland, and run the scheme to 31 March 2031.
The obligation falls on licensed Elec suppliers that had at least 1,000 GB domestic customers on the 31 December before the scheme year. Elec, gas and dual fuel accounts all count, and a dual fuel account counts as two. A gas supplier in the same group as an obligated Elec supplier takes part as well. Smaller suppliers can apply to Ofgem to join voluntarily.
Suppliers give a £150 rebate to each eligible household. Most households get it without applying, because the government matches benefits data to find them. For winter 2025/26 the government removed the high-cost-to-heat test in England and Wales, so any household receiving a qualifying means-tested benefit became eligible. It said this added 2.7 million households, taking the total to over 6 million.
Suppliers recover the rebates and their running costs through a levy on their domestic customers. Every domestic account carries a share of the cost, including accounts that get no rebate.
Key facts:
- Rebate: £150 per eligible household per scheme year, set in the regulations
- Scheme year 16 runs from 1 April 2026 in England and Wales, and from 1 May 2026 in Scotland, to 31 March 2027
- Scheme years 17 to 20 each run 1 April to 31 March, with the scheme ending on 31 March 2031
- From scheme year 16, England and Wales merge the two former eligibility groups into a single Core Group
- A domestic scheme: non-domestic supply is not part of it
EnergyCode does not hold WHD as a per-period rate. In the Pricing Engine it is a seeded, editable entry in Other costs for domestic supply only, because each supplier's share differs. It is not priced bottom-up and not validated on invoices.
Example
Scheme year 16 (2026/27): £150 rebate per eligible household, funded by the supplier's domestic customers