Warm Home Discount Scheme: Disability

(asked on 23rd June 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will make it his policy to put his plans to remove eligibility for the warm homes discount from disabled people not on income related benefits on hold for the purpose of holding discussions with disabled people's organisations on the impact of this plan on disabled people; what assessment he has made of the (a) net difference between the amount a disabled person who would previously have been eligible for the Warm Home Discount loses and gains with the Disability Cost of Living Payment and the (b) adequacy of this for paying for the additional costs faced by disabled people referred to by the Chancellor in his statement to the House on 26 May; and if he will make a statement on the impact of this plan on disabled people.


Answered by
Greg Hands Portrait
Greg Hands
Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
This question was answered on 1st July 2022

Due to the expansion and reform of the scheme, the Government estimated that 160,000 more households where someone has a disability or long-term illness will receive a rebate compared to the unreformed scheme. The scheme will be better targeted to households in fuel poverty and on the lowest incomes. Around 62% of Personal Independence Payment and Disability Living Allowance recipients also receive one of the qualifying means-tested benefits. Those households with high energy costs would therefore be eligible for a rebate.

The cost-of-living support measures announced this year will mean low-income people with a disability and in receipt of a means-tested benefit will receive £1,350 this year.

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