Receive Universal Credit? You could save on your broadband costs

Date published: 14th March 2022

Ofcom, the regulator for the communications service that we use and rely on every day, recently published a news article that could see Tuntum’s tenants save thousands of pounds each year. 

Extracts from Ofcom’s news article:

Millions of families under pressure from the rising cost of living could each save £144 on their annual broadband bills.

Special discounted broadband packages – sometimes known as social tariffs – are available to an estimated 4.2 million households in receipt of Univeral Credit.

But only 55,000 homes have taken advantage of these discounted rates so far – just 1.2% of those eligible. That means that millions of benefits recipients are missing out on an average annual broadband saving of £144 each.

Currently six broadband providers – BT, Community Fibre, G.Network, Hyperoptic, KCOM and Virgin Media O2 – offer at least one of these specially discounted deals. These packages are priced at between £10-£20 a month for broadband speeds ranging from 10Mbit/s to 67Mbit/s.

Switching onto a social tariff could provide some financial relief for eligible households. For example, a standard commercial broadband package costs an unemployed person claiming Universal Credit an average of £27 per month – or 8.3% of their monthly disposable income. A £15 social tariff would almost halve their broadband costs and use up 4.6% of disposable income.

Click here to read the full article and get links to the social tariffs mentioned above.