Families have been urged to check if they can get huge reductions on their broadband and mobile bills through the social tariffs scheme.
The Government said in an update to Parliament that is is continuing to urge providers to tell customers about the scheme, which includes broadband deals as low as £12 a month.
Media minister Julia Lopez provided a response to a question from Alba Party MP Kenny MacAskill, asking if there were targets for provision of broadband social tariffs in rural areas.
She said: “The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology has not set a target for the provision of social tariffs.
“The Government and Ofcom continue to press operators to do more to raise awareness of social tariffs so that eligible households make use of them.”
She said social tariffs are currently available in 99 percent of the UK including urban and rural parts of the country.
She explained: “Social tariffs are currently offered by 28 different providers across the UK and are available to an estimated five million households on Universal Credit as well as other means-tested benefits.
“In December 2023, Ofcom’s Pricing Trends report showed that 380,000 UK households now take up a social tariff, an almost 160 percent increase from September 2022.”
People on Pension Credit may also be eligible for some of the discounted packages. Research from Broadband Genie found millions of pensioners are unaware of the schemes.
Alex Tofts, broadband expert at Broadband Genie, told Express.co.uk previously: “From next month, the state pension is rising to just over £11,500, but according to Retirement Living Standards, a single person would need £14,400 a year to cover just a ‘minimum’ retirement lifestyle. This suggests that many pensioners need social tariffs to ease challenging living costs.”
He gave the example of Vodafone, which has a broadband social tariff for just £12 a month, which is more than half the price of its standard broadband service, which starts at £27 a month.
Families may want to check now if they can get a social tariff as broadband and mobile bills will be increasing by up to 8.8 percent next month.
Many providers base their mid-contract increases in April on the inflation rate plus an additional percentage increase.
Andy Aitken, co-founder and CEO of mobile provider Honest, spoke of his disappointment that Chancellor Jeremy Hunt did not act on the mid-contract price hikes in his Spring Budget.
He previously told Express.co.uk: “These unfair price increases – like the one we’ve recently been informed of that will see millions across the UK face price hikes of up to 8.8 percent – are deeply unethical and take a serious toll on people’s finances.
“Given how timely this issue is, it’s shocking that this wasn’t addressed in last week’s budget.”
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