BT is increasing the cost of its Home Essentials social broadband tariff from tomorrow – but you can still lock in the current price if you act today. The price of this package is rising from £15 to £16 a month from May 2.
The deal offers average speeds of 36Mbps and is available only to those claiming certain benefits, including Universal Credit, Pension Credit (Guarantee Credit), Employment and Support Allowance, Jobseeker’s Allowance and Income Support.
BT will ask for your National Insurance number when you apply to check you are eligible. There is also a faster deal with 67Mbps for £23 a month, which is due to rise to £24 tomorrow.
Those who sign up tonight will lock in the current prices for 12 months. Keep in mind there is an upfront fee of £12 for postage and packaging. However, there are cheaper social broadband tariffs available – you can see the full list from Ofcom below.
A BT spokesperson said: “We’re committed to providing support to our customers when they need it most – so we’re continuing to offer low-income customers a range of connectivity options.
“From 2nd May 2025, new customers can now join our broadband social tariff Home Essentials, which offers the cheapest quality connectivity for zero income customers from £16 a month. Our yearly eligibility checks ensure we’re offering customers the right tariffs at the right time.”
WHATSAPP GROUP: Get money news and top deals straight to your phone by joining our Money WhatsApp group here. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don’t like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you’re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
NEWSLETTER: Or sign up to the Mirror’s Money newsletter here for all the best advice and shopping deals straight to your inbox.
These are the current social tariffs listed by Ofcom. Check each tariff online to see which benefits you need to be claiming in order to take out one of these deals.
Work allowance
If your broadband or mobile contract is expiring, check prices elsewhere using a comparison website to see what other deals are available. When comparing broadband deals, take a look at your current speed, and for mobile, how many minutes, texts and data you use.
You may find you’re actually paying too much right now for speeds you don’t really need, or allowances you’re not using. If you’ve found a cheaper deal, you can switch to this if you’re out of contract. Alternatively, you may want to haggle down your current provider.
When haggling, explain the better deals you’ve seen elsewhere then ask if the company can match or beat that price. The best time to try and negotiate a better deal is near the end of your contract or, in some cases, when a price rise has been announced.
You may be able to leave penalty-free when a mid-contract price rise is announced, although not if the price rise was already written into your contract.
At Reach and across our entities we and our partners use information collected through cookies and other identifiers from your device to improve experience on our site, analyse how it is used and to show personalised advertising. You can opt out of the sale or sharing of your data, at any time clicking the “Do Not Sell or Share my Data” button at the bottom of the webpage. Please note that your preferences are browser specific. Use of our website and any of our services represents your acceptance of the use of cookies and consent to the practices described in our Privacy Notice and Cookie Notice.