Broadband ISP BT Extends the UK Availability of its Social Tariffs
UK ISP BT has this afternoon announced that their low-cost home broadband social tariffs – ‘Home Essentials‘ – are also being made available to thousands of additional households, often alongside the inclusion of free laptops.
Home Essentials is a “fibre broadband” (FTTC/P) and call package that is usually only available to those receiving Universal Credit (and certain legacy benefits), which offers unlimited data, 700 minutes of included phone calls and speeds of 36Mbps or 67Mbps for just £15 or £20 per month respectively (detailed package summary) – plus £9.99 (one-off) for router postage.
However, BT has today partnered with charity Home-Start UK, which supports families with young children across the UK who are facing a range of challenges, to offer 2,500 households with no connectivity free laptops and access to its social tariff. Families in temporary accommodation, with no fixed address, or those in need of emergency support, are also being given mobile devices and prepaid SIMs.
Advertisement
The tariff will also be made available to families in need nationwide through the ‘Connected Families‘ scheme, available through Buttle UK and Barnardo‘s, following a pilot scheme in partnership with the Department of Education (DfE).
Marc Allera, CEO of BT’s Consumer Division, said:
“BT’s purpose of Connecting for Good is at the heart of what we do, and having an affordable fixed broadband connection is fundamental to quality of life.
We need to find sustainable ways to make the internet a level playing field for all. That’s why it’s been great to have run a trial in partnership with the Department of Education, and now we’re proud to join forces with Home-Start, as well as Buttle UK to get BT Home Essentials to those who need it the most.”
The announcement is naturally a response to today’s government-linked commitments, which focused heavily on the push for social tariffs (here).
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
« Broadband ISPs and Mobile Operators Agree UK Cost-of-Living Plan
Latest UK ISP News
- FTTP (6112)
- BT (3675)
- Politics (2757)
- Business (2461)
- Openreach (2432)
- Building Digital UK (2353)
- Mobile Broadband (2182)
- FTTC (2092)
- Statistics (1937)
- 4G (1839)
- Virgin Media (1794)
- Ofcom Regulation (1605)
- Fibre Optic (1482)
- Wireless Internet (1472)
- 5G (1436)
I’m a pensioner on pension credit and pay £43 a month to BTfor broadband and phone contacted bt to see if I could get it any cheaper they said they couldn’t do anything until the end of contract
Brian on pension credit you can definitely move to BT essential mid way through a contract free of charge,I’ve just done my dad online no issue..2 tarrifs £15 for broadband and 700 mins a month or £20 for faster broadband and unlimited mins (of course having to hang up at 60 mins and redial) hope this helps..good luck https://www.bt.com/exp/broadband/home-essentials?s_cid=con_bt_dg-home_awin_aff_vidAJM_110483-Editorial+Content&vendorid=AJM&utm_source=Affwin&utm_medium=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bt.com%2Fexp%2Fbroadband%2Fhome-essentials&utm_campaign=110483&awc=3041_1645094835_8db5e34aa3189a1e2d1144312948112e
Brian, its always the same. The rich get richer, the poor get help with everything while middle England pays for it all with zero help. It will never change.
@Rollers –
Tax statistics for the UK 2021/22 –
“Income tax payments are concentrated amongst those with the largest incomes. The 10% of income taxpayers with the largest incomes contribute over 60% of income tax receipts.”
In fact the top 1% of earners pay over 29% of the total income tax.
so where do these free laptops come from? Do they grow on trees like money?