EE and BT to Raise Price of UK Social Broadband Tariffs After Earlier Denial
Broadband ISP BT (EE) has this morning caused a degree of surprise by appearing to reverse last week’s denial (here) and announcing a price increase of £1 per month across their low-cost home broadband social tariffs for those on state benefits (Home Essentials). The provider had previously indicated to ISPreview that no such price increases would be introduced in 2025.
The Home Essentials plans reflect a mix of “fibre” (FTTC/P) and call bundles that are usually only available to those receiving Universal Credit (and certain legacy benefits). The plans included unlimited data, the ability to cancel anytime without penalty and speeds of 36Mbps (dropping back to 16Mbps in ADSL-only areas) or 67Mbps for just £15-£20 or £23 per month respectively. A Call Only (no broadband) plan also exists for £10 per month, while those on “zero income” (no income) only pay £15 for the 36Mbps option.
Last week we reported on how BT had updated the T&Cs on their website to announce a series of changes to their social tariffs, which among other things included a £1 per month price increase on two of their plans (36Mbps and 67Mbps) and the removal of their “zero income” option. The changes were all due to be introduced from 2nd May 2025.
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The above came as a surprise, not least because BT had previously made a bit of a song and dance about how their social tariffs would NOT be increasing in price when they confirmed their latest round of annual price hikes in January 2025 (here). BT then responded to the news reports by informing ISPreview that their website was “not correct and [had] been updated in error”.
ISPreview later asked EE / BT to confirm whether it was indeed the case that “none of the changes” previously showing on their T&C pages would be introduced this year. In response, a spokesperson for the operator told us “that is correct” and we then updated our article accordingly.
So, you can imagine our surprise at receiving the following message from EE / BT this week, which confirmed that their broadband social tariff, Home Essentials, would indeed be increasing in price by £1 per month for new eligible customers from 2nd May 2025. In other words, their zero income plan becomes £16, while the Fibre Essentials plan (36Mbps) will now be £21, and you’ll pay £24 for 67Mbps on the Fibre 2 Plan.
A BT / EE spokesperson told ISPreview:
“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.”
The provider said they were making the changes to help support their continuing investment in the business and to “bring customers a better, more reliable experience and the best value for money“. The provider added that they’d “kept the price for our social tariffs flat for a number of years, but our own costs continue to increase, so adjusting what we offer and how much for allows us to continue supporting customers“.
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On the plus side, there’s no change to remove the “zero income” (no income) tariff this time, which is a good thing. But given the above U-turn, we now can’t help but wonder whether the writing may be on the wall for that plan too. The price increase itself is fairly small and is perfectly understandable given recent cost increases (inflation etc.), but clearly BT / EE could have done a better job on the communication side of things (both internally and externally).
Finally, a quick reminder. We know social tariffs can be a divisive topic for some, but that is not an excuse to abuse the comment system in order to post offensive remarks toward those who take state benefits. Such posts are against our rules and will be removed.
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.
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The price is increasing! No it’s not! Yes it is!
Regardless of your view on social tariffs, BT’s behaviour suggests that the company is run by clowns.
Thats an insult to clowns mate
“The left arm doesn’t know what the right arm is doing”
No smoke without fire so they say, in other words they lied.
I know it is only a squid, but why say they are not when they know they are? This is why my trust in companies, organisations, Police and government is ZERO.
Even companies I stick with.
@Ad47uk “This is why my trust in companies, organisations, Police and government is ZERO.”
Hear-Hear! I agree, the trust for councils, businesses and Governments (Left & Right) is one-to-none.
Unfortunately they are all in it for themselves.
There needs to be a motive for a lie. What would it be in this case? They stood to gain nothing from what I can see.
I would guess the truth is something very mundane.
After being a BT and EE customer for most of the last 7 years, they have a habit of pressing the button early on some things.
I was told a week before they were going to use Now by a customer rep on the phone.
The website was updated before the AMC channel was removed.
BT Sports customers received Eurosport early and a employee openly said “oh I see someone pressed the button early, enjoy!”
Just usual incompetence by BT.
You don’t task someone to update terms and webpages if you aren’t going to be making changes. This wasn’t some rogue employee deciding to just make changes for fun – they’d been instructed to do the changes.
BT knew before last week they were increasing changes so I’m puzzled to why they went to such lengths to state many times it was an error.
Both EE and BT are the one I always avoid them!
I said when I left BT I would never go back, that was around 14 years ago, but i needed to get back to fixed line broadband quickly and Plusnet at the time was the only provider I found that would do it and give me a decent price and not charged me a bundle to reconnect my phone line. I was only going to stay until the contract ran out, but stayed for 9 years. I had a couple of problems in those 9 years, one was a bit strange, when after I lost phone and broadband, when what they thought was the fault was sorted. My old ECI modem would not connect, so I borrowed a Huawie modem from next door had that was not in use and that worked fine, Plusnet sent me an all-in-one router, that would not work, so got Openreach onto it and they did try to sort the problem, even their equipment would not connect in the house or down the cabinet, in then end they said to keep using the Huawei modem.
Plusnet then sent me a Zyxel router to see if that solved the problem, it did not. so I ended up buying a Huawei modem from Ebay and connected it to the WAN on the zyxel. and that stayed like that for about 6-7 years, when I thought I would try the Zyxel built-in modem again and it worked. Then not long after that the Zyxel gave up, and I had to use the plusnet router via Lan, but because it had not been connected for so long it would not update, so that is when I decided to buy my own TP-link router, which is what I am using now.
So apart from that a couple of other small problems, Plusnet was OK, they kept giving me good offers, so I thought I may as well stay.
The thing with plusnet they were separate to BT, customer service was good and when they contacted me about the TV service and I said no thanks, because I don’t have a TV licence, they never bothered me again about that service/.
I have said on here a few times why I left them after 9 years, but if they had given me a decent deal and let me stay on FTTC I would still be with them now. Still, maybe it worked out for the best. No plans to change broadband provider while I am here.
We need to haul our BT Spokesman, “BT Ivor” for a statement…..
GiffGaff are trialling 500Mb for £10/month and Community Fibre offer 500Mb for £20/month – why is BT so expensive even for their social tariffs? They can’t keep going up and up in price… this is the issue with shareholders wanting greater and greater returns. It’s unsustainable.
Voxi does unlimited for £10 a month for a while, or you can get £8 a month for 50GB with talkmobile not on a social tariff. That’s abysmal from Giffgaff. Also, not on a social tariff, paying £29 to Vodafone for 900mbit… The discounts on the social tariffs are pretty rubbish imo.
Bit misleading to name EE in this – that brand doesn’t have a broadband social tariff, just BT.
It’s a tariff that BT manages, but is also available to EE and Plusnet customers.
EE promotes the same social tariffs, and the PR also came from @EE.co.uk. EE also states: “If you’re an existing BT, EE or Plusnet broadband customer and qualify for Home Essentials, you can switch over for no extra charge.”
https://store.ee.co.uk/promotions-and-press-releases/products/home-essentials/
https://ee.co.uk/help/here-for-you/financial-support
The vast majority of BT internal email addresses are all @ee.co.uk, switchover happened well over a year ago. Both those links say Home Essentials on BT. Thanks for confirming I was correct. For EE and Plusnet customers, its not available on those brands, a working line takeover has to happen and a switch of ISP to BT.
I recontracted Community Fibre £17 x21 AND £0 x 3 500mb (24 mth)
Luckily, I had another FFTP deal to barter against.
So, BT or whatever are hardly generous !
I have just Re contracted Community Fibre
£89 for 5gbps Broadband, TV and Calls
BT/EE do not do 5gbps Broadband
and their TV package is expensive
Greed, The top social tariff was £20 you would get upto 76Mbps and also call package now this is £24 that is a fairly large price increase. This is a tactic companies use now you put it inline or few £ short of other packages so people wont bother giving company excuse to withdraw product (they only offer it anyway for PR reasons)