That is why people miss out. They ring one number, are told they do not qualify, and assume that is the end of it.

A household that fails the test for one scheme very often passes for another. Here is what exists, who runs each part, and the order to work through it, alongside which bills are priority debts in Scotland.

Your supplier and Home Energy Scotland, on the same day. Your supplier is the only body that can change what you pay and when, and Home Energy Scotland is the free impartial service that maps everything else onto your circumstances.

A running order that works

• Ring your supplier, say you are having difficulty paying, and ask what support it offers.
• Ring Home Energy Scotland on 0808 808 2282 for free advice and referrals.
• Check whether you are in the Warm Home Discount core group or whether you need to apply to your supplier.
• Ask your council about a Scottish Welfare Fund Crisis Grant if the situation is an emergency, and see what a Crisis Grant is and how to apply.

If other bills are behind as well

Energy arrears rarely arrive on their own, so a free money adviser should be the third call. How to build a budget when money is taken from your wages covers what an adviser will do with your figures.

It gives free, impartial advice on energy costs and refers you on to the schemes you qualify for. It is funded by the Scottish Government and managed by Energy Saving Trust, and the freephone number is 0808 808 2282.

It is advice and referral, not a cash grant

This is the point that catches people out, because it will not pay your bill. What it does is work out which programmes fit your home and your household and put you forward for them, and its own site is at homeenergyscotland.org.

That includes Warmer Homes Scotland, the Scottish Government’s energy efficiency programme, which is reached through Home Energy Scotland rather than applied for separately. The line is open 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday and 9am to 5pm on Saturdays and bank holidays.

What to have ready when you call

• Your latest bill or statement and the name of your supplier.
• Who lives in the house, including anyone over pension age, any children and anyone with a health condition.
• Which benefits anyone in the household receives, because several schemes key off a qualifying benefit rather than off income.

It is a £150 rebate credited to your electricity account, and Scotland still runs two groups. What changed on 1 May 2026 is that the core group is much wider than Pension Credit, so advice written before that date understates who gets it automatically.

The 2026 instrument, and what it did

The Warm Home Discount (Scotland) Regulations 2026, SI 2026/488, were made on 30 April 2026 and came into force on 1 May 2026. They re-enact the scheme for a further five scheme years, to 31 March 2031.

Their own explanatory note says the changes include expanding the range of qualifying benefits for core group eligibility, in Schedule 1.

In broad terms the core group now reaches Pension Credit without further condition, and Universal Credit or the older income-related benefits where a disability or a child under five is in the picture. Check your own position with your supplier rather than reading a summary as a rule.

Core group and broader group, side by side

Broader group funding is finite and suppliers close applications once the allocation is used, so applying as soon as the scheme opens is worth more than chasing in February. Ofgem’s own eligibility page describes the broader group as application-based against supplier criteria it approves.

The dates for 2026 to 2027

The government’s consumer guide gives a qualifying date of 23 August 2026 and says the scheme will reopen in October 2026, with the discount applied by the supplier rather than paid to you. That is gov.uk’s Scotland page, as read on 29 August 2026.

Three of them, all annual and all normally automatic: the Winter Heating Payment, the Child Winter Heating Payment and the Pension Age Winter Heating Payment. All three were uprated by 3.8% for 2026 to 2027.

The 2026 to 2027 rates

The rates come from the Scottish Government’s uprating paper published on 2 February 2026, cross-read against each payment’s own page: Winter Heating Payment, Child Winter Heating Payment and Pension Age Winter Heating Payment.

They are money, not a discount

These are devolved benefits paid by Social Security Scotland rather than reductions applied by your energy supplier. They land in your bank account, which means you decide what they are spent on.

One trap is worth knowing if your wages are being arrested. HMRC recovers the Pension Age Winter Heating Payment where individual income exceeds £35,000, and arrested wages are still your income, because an arrestment does not reduce what you are taxed on.

If you think you qualified and nothing arrived

Because these payments are automatic, the usual cause is a benefit record that does not match or an address change that has not reached the right system. Ask Social Security Scotland to check the qualifying week against your record, and keep the award letters, which are useful evidence for a benefits check.

It has to take all reasonable steps to work out what you can afford before it sets a repayment figure. That is Standard Licence Condition 27.8, and a supplier that quotes a number and refuses to look at your income and outgoings is failing a licence condition rather than exercising commercial judgement.

The sentence to use on the phone

Say that you are asking them to set the repayment rate under their ability to pay obligation, and that you have your income and expenditure in front of you. Then send it in writing.

If they still refuse, the complaint goes to the supplier first. Advice Direct Scotland is the route mygov.scot names for taking a supplier complaint further in Scotland.

What the rules say about meters and disconnection

The prepayment meter rules moved into the standard licences on 8 November 2023, and Ofgem’s own statement of them is the source for the list above. The disconnection limits are in the Electricity Act 1989 and the Gas Act 1986.

Winter, and the voluntary layer on top

Ofgem’s licence conditions ban winter disconnection of a customer of pensionable age living alone or only with other pensioners or under-18s. They require all reasonable steps to avoid it in other vulnerable households.

Most suppliers have also signed the Energy UK Vulnerability Commitment, which goes further than the licence. It is voluntary, so treat it as a reason to ask rather than a rule.

Yes to both, in different ways. A Crisis Grant can cover heating in an emergency and is decided by the end of the next working day, and supplier hardship funds and the British Gas Energy Trust give grants towards energy debt.

The Crisis Grant, and its limit

A Crisis Grant is for an emergency or disaster causing an immediate threat to health or safety, delivered by all 32 councils under the Welfare Funds (Scotland) Regulations 2016, and what the Scottish Welfare Fund is explains the two grants.

Owing the council money is not a reason to refuse you. The guidance tells local authorities not to refuse a Crisis Grant or a Community Care Grant because the applicant has outstanding debts to the authority.

What no grant from the fund can do is pay a debt. The one debt-shaped exception is a prepayment meter, where an emergency amount sufficient to reach the end of the crisis can be met.

Supplier hardship funds

mygov.scot lists hardship programmes run by British Gas, Scottish Power, Ovo Energy, E.ON Next, EDF Energy and Octopus, on its page for people who cannot afford their energy bills, last updated 14 July 2025.

The one that is not limited to a single supplier’s customers is the British Gas Energy Trust, whose Individual and Families Fund is open to prepayment and credit customers of any supplier. Its published criteria include a debt band, an income test and no grant in the past two years.

One condition is worth pulling out, because it is a reason to see an adviser rather than an obstacle. The Trust asks applicants to have had help from a money advice agency, or to have used its partner’s budgeting tool, within the last six months.

Heating oil and LPG, and two funds that are not running

The Scottish Emergency Heating Oil Scheme was announced on 25 March 2026, pays £300 direct to the oil or LPG supplier, and is administered by Advice Direct Scotland through homeheatingadvice.scot. It opened on 1 April 2026 to run for up to six months, so check it is still open before you rely on it.

The Fuel Insecurity Fund and the Home Heating Support Fund are a different matter. Neither shows as operating and no funding for either appears in the Scottish Budget for 2026 to 2027, so do not plan around them.

Deal with both, and remember that council tax moves faster. A council can obtain a summary warrant with no court hearing, add a 10% statutory addition, and instruct sheriff officers without serving a charge for payment first.

Why council tax escalates first

An earnings arrestment then takes a fixed amount set by Schedule 2 to the Debtors (Scotland) Act 1987, on tables in force since 6 April 2025, rather than an amount based on what you can afford.

Monthly net pay of £750.00 or less produces a nil deduction, and £1,800.00 produces £172.50 a month. What happens if you do not pay your council tax in Scotland covers the sequence.

Get in before that stage

A money adviser can look at a Debt Payment Programme under the Debt Arrangement Scheme, which freezes interest and charges, or at a statutory moratorium. What the Debt Arrangement Scheme is explains how one is approved.

Council Tax Reduction can also cut the underlying bill by up to 100%, and what Council Tax Reduction in Scotland is sets out who qualifies.