Sky, BT, Virgin broadband customers are being handed £280 off bill

BT, Virgin and Sky customers on Universal Credit or Personal Independence Payment (PIP) from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) can get £300 off broadband bills. You may be due cheap, long-term 'social tariffs' if you're on benefits.

The standard deals will generally have cheaper headline prices due to newbies' sign-up incentives. So they usually win for regular switchers. Yet if you want to stick with a provider for more than a year or so, then social tariffs are likely to be the cheapest route.

The BT Home Essentials broadband and line is for "new" and "existing customers" with a broadband customer service of 6.6/10, according to Martin Lewis and his Money Saving Expert team. Its Home essentials (for those with no income) is £11.99 upfront then £15/month for up to 36Mb plus unlimited minutes calling plan.

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Its Home essentials is £11.99 upfront then £20/month for up to 36Mb and its home essentials is £11.99 upfront then £23/month for up to 67Mb. To qualify, you need to be receiving one of the following: Universal Credit, income-related employment and support allowance, pension credit (guarantee credit element), income support or income-based jobseeker's allowance.

As part of the application process, BT will carry out a credit check and you may have to pay a security deposit which is refundable. Also, after 12 months, BT will run another eligibility check to see if you still qualify for Home Essentials.

With Virgin, you can pay £12.50/month for average 15Mb speed broadband only (no line) or £20/month for average 54Mb speed broadband only (no line). To qualify, you need to be receiving UC and living in an area Virgin covers (60% of the country).

With Sky, to qualify, you need to be receiving Universal Credit, pension credit, income-based employment support allowance, income-based jobseeker’s allowance or income support. You must also be an existing Sky broadband customer.

BT pricing starts from £34 a month, working out at over £400 a year, but you can slash that down to £180 using a social tariff. Sky packages are even more costly, and were hiked seven per cent in April. Its Gigafast costs £43 a month - or £516 a year, but you can cut it to £20 or £240.