We could save up to £234 a year on phone and broadband with a social tariff

Bills are bound to rise as the weather cools down. Citizens advice claims one in four of us will turn off our heating come October. Now is as good a time as any to save on household costs without giving up our essentials – like broadband! 

If we’re on Universal Credit or certain other benefits we could save on our broadband or phone services with a social tariff.

At a time when we’re all worrying about bills, moving on to a social tariff if we can could save up to £234 a year. Plus, we won’t be affected by those pesky mid-contract price hikes.

The government has been working with service providers to offer deals of between £10 and £20 a month to those who qualify.

It sounds a bit too good to be true. But the only catch with social tariffs is that not enough of us are on them.  Uswitch recently found that two in three low income households are unaware of broadband tariffs. That’s nearly 10 million homes missing out. 

So why is this? There are a few reasons…

Some of us might assume that such a big cash saving means we’ll end up with a much worse service. Wrong! Many social tariffs for broadband run at superfast speeds (30Mbps to 100Mbps) – that should be more than enough for streaming or video calling. In some parts of the country, we could even get ultrafast broadband.

We might worry that we’re not eligible, or it’ll be hard to prove that we are. But since last year, providers can check with the DWP that we qualify (if we consent).

If we’re already signed up to a contract for 12 or 24 months, we may worry we’ll be hit with big fees for changing early. While this may be the case, most providers won’t charge us for moving to a social tariff – if we stay with them. If our existing provider doesn’t offer a social tariff then sadly we may be hit with a penalty. But they should decide on a case-by-case basis, so it’s certainly worth asking if they’ll waive any fee.

We can find out more, and compare prices, on the Uswitch webpage.

_{This article was updated August 2024.}

Image: Anna Nekrashevich / Pexels