BT, Sky, Virgin Media broadband customers having £456 knocked off bill

An underused loophole could give thousands of households up to £456 off broadband bills. Customers with BT, Sky, Virgin Media and Vodafone could make a simple switch to slash their costs, experts have warned amid the Cost of Living crisis.

Customers can save with a social broadband tariff. BT - one of the largest broadband providers in the UK - offers customers on selected benefits a low-cost 12-month contract costing £15 a month for a 36Mbit/s connection or £20 for a faster connection.

It means if a customer is paying £33.99 for a standard 24-month BT broadband-only package, they can expect to pay £815.76 over the whole period. If the same customer switched to the £15 a month social tariff for the same two-year period, they'd pay £360 in total.

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It represents an eye-watering saving of £456. Social tariffs are a way to get broadband if you're receiving Universal Credit or another type of financial support. They're much cheaper than the standard monthly rate for the service and are reserved for these customers to help them afford the usual monthly price of a broadband connection.

Vodafone has its Fibre 1 Essentials tariff offering 38Mbps and costing £12 a month. The Virgin Media Essentials plan will set customers back £12.50, while Sky's Broadband Basics costs £20, as does NOW's. If you would like an even faster BT deal, you could upgrade to the BT Home Essentials 'Fibre 2' deal for £23 per month (usually around £35).

You can qualify for BT Home Essentials if you are on any of the following: Universal Credit, Income Support, Jobseeker’s Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance or Pensions Credit, which are all benefits paid through the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

To qualify for the 'No Income' social tariff, you must also not receive income from paid employment alongside your financial support plan.