Financial Support

The Warmer Homes scheme provides free heating, insulation and ventilation upgrades for low-income Londoners who own their own home or rent privately.

Eligible homeowners and private tenants can apply for grants worth between £5,000 and £25,000, depending on the energy efficiency rating of your home, your tenure (whether you own or rent) and your current heating fuel (eg gas, electricity, oil or LPG).

Eligible households can use grants to install:

• Heat pumps
• Wall, loft and floor insulation
• Heating system improvements or repairs
• Draught-proofing
• Solar energy systems.

To be eligible for the Warmer Homes scheme in London, you need to:

• Live in Greater London
• Own or rent your own home (landlords can apply if their tenant is eligible)
• Be in receipt of a means-tested benefit or have a low household income (less than £20,000 a year after rent/mortgage and council tax deductions)
• Have a property Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of D or lower.

For more information on the scheme, including how to apply, please visit the Mayor of London’s website.

The Warm Home Discount is a one off wintertime payment of £150 towards your energy bills. The money is not paid to you – it’s applied as a discount on your energy bill between October and March.

You may be eligible for the Warm Home Discount if:

• You receive the Guarantee Credit element of Pension Credit or
• You are on a low income and meet your energy supplier’s criteria for the scheme.

Your electricity supplier must be part of the scheme, but as this list shows, most suppliers are. There are different ways to apply to the scheme, depending on how you qualify for the discount.

For more information on the scheme, including how to apply, visit the UK Government’s website.

If you receive certain benefits you could get £25 extra a week during the winter when the temperature is zero or below for more than seven days.

Check if you’re eligible

A £400 discount will be automatically applied in six instalments between October 2022 and March 2023 to help households through winter.

There is no need to apply for the scheme and you will not be asked for your bank details – watch out for text and email scams that request information relating to energy payments; if concerned, contact Trading Standards.

If you have a prepayment meter, you’ll automatically get the discount as either a redeemable voucher via text, email or post or when you top up at your usual top-up point as an automatic credit.

You will need to take your prepayment meter voucher to your usual top-up point. To find the one nearest you, use our local directory.

Take up of the vouchers in London has been low. If you haven’t received one, please contact your energy supplier to make sure they have the right contact details for you.  They can re-send you a voucher if needed.

Find out more information.

Energy Bills Support Scheme Alternative Funding

 
The UK Government announced that a further 900,000 homes would be getting support under the Energy Bills Support Scheme Alternative Funding. The Alternative Funding is for people who don’t have a domestic electricity supply and didn’t get the automatic £400 payment or don’t have direct contact with a supplier to get an automatic payment.

For more information on the alternative funding visit the guide here.

In the winter months pensioners can get between £100 and £300 to help pay heating bills.

This winter, they will also receive an extra one-off £300 Pensioner Cost of Living Payment, which will be paid as an automatic top-up to the Winter Fuel Payment.

Check if you’re eligible for the Winter Fuel Payment

Cost of Living Payment

Households on means tested benefits, including Universal Credit, Pension Credit and Tax Credits, will receive a payment of £650 this year.

Disability Cost of Living Payment

Individuals on disability benefits will receive a one-off £150 payment in September to help with extra costs, such as for specialist equipment or transport.

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme is a UK Government initiative to encourage more people to install heat pumps and biomass boilers.

The scheme provides up to £6,000 to help cover the cost of installing one of three low carbon heating systems:

• Air source heat pump (£5,000 grant)
• Ground source heat pump (£6,000 grant)
• Biomass boiler (£5,000 grant).

The funding only covers biomass boilers in rural locations, in properties that are not connected to the gas grid, and with an emissions certificate showing that polluting emissions are kept to a minimum. Biomass boilers in self-build properties are not eligible under the scheme.

The scheme is open to homeowners, as well as owners of small business properties, in England and Wales. To be eligible for the scheme, you must:

• Own your property
• Have a property with an installation capacity up to 45kWh (this covers most homes)
• Have a valid EPC that does not include any outstanding recommendations for loft or cavity wall insulation (unless you are exempt).

For more information on the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, including FAQs and how to apply, visit Energy Saving Trust’s website.

The Smart Export Guarantee provides income to homes for the electricity they export to the grid. It ensures you’re paid for the renewable electricity you generate at home but can’t use.

You may be eligible for the scheme if you have one of the following renewable energy systems at home:

• Solar PV panels
• Wind turbine
• Hydroelectricity
• Anaerobic digestion
• Micro combined heat and power.

All energy suppliers with at least 150,000 customers must provide at least one Smart Export Guarantee tariff, however there are no set or minimum tariffs for the scheme (although it must always be greater than zero).

The system and your installer must be certified under the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) or equivalent. Your energy supplier may ask for your MCS certificate to prove that your installation meets this standard. You also need a registered smart meter that records how much electricity you export to the grid.

For more information on the Smart Export Guarantee, visit Energy Saving Trust’s website.

Find information about benefits, grants and discounts you can get if you’re in financial difficulty, from the Mayor of London, the government, your local council, charities and advice centres through the mayor’s cost-of-living hub.