
Why millions more households will receive the £150 Warm Home Discount
The Warm Home Discount scheme has been expanded to provide £150 directly off energy bills for around six million people, including 900,000 families with children and 1.8 million households in fuel poverty.
To be eligible, the bill payer must either receive the guarantee credit element of pension credit or be on a low income.
An additional two million people will now receive the automatic discount, after the previous requirement for low-income households to have 'high energy costs' to qualify for the payment was removed.
The £150 discount is applied automatically to eligible customers' energy bills between October and March.
This positive development for households comes as energy regulator Ofgem is set to drop its energy price cap by 7 per cent for July to September.
Rule change to bring £150 winter energy discount to millions more – here's who's eligible
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Reuters
11 minutes ago
- Reuters
France tightens grip on Eutelsat through 1.35 bln-euro shares sale
PARIS, June 19 (Reuters) - The French state will become Eutelsat's ( opens new tab top shareholder following a 1.35 billion-euro ($1.55 billion) capital increase aimed at helping the satellite company better compete with Elon Musk's Starlink, the finance ministry said on Thursday. The capital injection will deliver a shot in the arm to debt-laden Eutelsat, which has garnered unprecedented attention this year from European governments looking for alternatives to compete with Elon Musk's Starlink. France's state shareholding agency will inject 717 million euros, or more than half of the sum, into the company, the ministry said. The agency will also acquire the stake held by France's state-owned investment bank Bpifrance in Eutelsat as part of the company, a government official said, bringing France's total stake to 29.99%. "The French government is proud to support Eutelsat. By participating in its capital increase, we are supporting a decisive stage in its development. Satellite connectivity is a strategic issue for our industrial and digital sovereignty," Finance Minister Eric Lombard said. ($1 = 0.8721 euros)


Reuters
12 minutes ago
- Reuters
ECB's Nagel says savings union more urgent than banking union
MILAN, June 19 (Reuters) - Creating a European Union savings union has become a matter of urgency, European Central Bank policymaker and Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel said on Thursday, adding a closer banking union could follow after that. European policymakers are seeking to foster deeper and more integrated capital markets across the often fragmented 27-member bloc. As part of that, they are pursuing a "savings and investments union" to try to encourage retail investors to fund the investments in energy, defence and technology European needs to bridge the productivity gap with the United States and China. Europe has fallen behind the other major global economic powers, posing a threat to its citizens' living standards. Given growing competition among economic blocs and tense relations with the United States, where a large portion of European savings has typically been invested, Nagel said there was no time to lose. "I think the first step, I believe this is of utmost importance, is to establish the savings and investment union, to do much more here. I think this is now of utmost importance," Nagel told a student conference in Milan. "And then in the next step, we can do the banking union," he said. Speaking at the same conference, UniCredit ( opens new tab CEO Andrea Orcel said the EU needed to become more competitive, which he has perviously said would happen if European banks were allowed to grow in size to better compete with U.S. rivals. Orcel, whose ambitions to take over Commerzbank ( opens new tab have stalled due to strong German opposition, complained about the barriers raised by European governments against the bank's consolidation efforts. Nagel said he shared Orcel's view about the need for Europe to become more competitive, and reiterated his support for a banking union. But he said he thought the banking union was first of all about more uniform rules across different markets, with countries adopting a neighbour's best practice standards wherever necessary, and then consolidation could follow.


BreakingNews.ie
39 minutes ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Ireland is the second most expensive EU country, figures show
Ireland is the second most expensive country in the European Union — behind only Denmark — with prices just over 38 per cent above the average in the bloc, according to new figures from Eurostat. Data from the EU's statistical agency show that back in 2015 prices in Ireland were 28 per cent above average. Advertisement When it comes to alcohol and tobacco, prices in Ireland are the most expensive in the EU at 205 per cent of the EU average. Much of this is due to Government taxation, and more recently, minimum unit pricing on alcohol. For alcohol alone, prices are the second highest in the EU — after Finland — at almost 198 per cent of the EU average. Food and non-alcoholic drink prices in Ireland are the third highest in the EU, behind Luxembourg and Denmark, at almost 15 per cent above average. However, this is an improvement on recent years, as prices were over 21 per cent above average in 2020. Restaurant and hotel prices are the second highest in the EU, behind only Denmark, at 29 per cent above average. Advertisement Communications costs are almost 40 per cent above average. Ireland is also the third most expensive country for electricity, gas and fuel with prices over 17 per cent above average. Meanwhile, clothing prices are actually 1 per cent below the EU average and cheaper than in Lithuania, Latvia and Poland. Meanwhile, the price of furniture, carpets and flooring is only 6 per cent above average, while the cost of household appliances is 9 per cent higher. Non-EU countries Iceland, Norway and Switzerland were also included in the research and generally have prices higher than Ireland. Daragh Cassidy from price comparison site said the figures confirmed the widespread belief that Ireland is an expensive country. Advertisement "There are several reasons why prices here are so high," he said. "These include: our higher wages, a lack of competition in certain sectors, high taxation on certain goods such as tobacco, alcohol and fuel, and lower government subsidies in certain areas such as public transport and childcare compared to our European neighbours. Business Cost of living in Ireland: How quickly are prices... Read More "Businesses are also faced with high insurance and energy costs, which then get passed on to consumers. "Ireland will never be a cheap place to live. And it's worth noting that many of the world's most expensive countries such as Switzerland, Iceland and Denmark also have some of the highest standards of living in the world. "The problem is that wages in Ireland, while high by international standards, generally don't match the salaries in these countries. At the same time, taxpayers in more expensive countries tend to get back more from the Government in terms of better and more affordable healthcare, childcare and public transport — though there have been welcome improvements made here in Ireland in recent years. Advertisement "At a minimum, the Government should look at measures that are within its control to lower the impact of high prices and the cost of living in Ireland."