Social broadband tariffs are offered by most major broadband providers and offer discounted broadband packages for people who receive certain benefits.
Some providers call them ‘essential’ or ‘basic’ broadband. They’re delivered in the same way as normal packages, just at a lower price.
However, according to Ofcom figures, just 9.6% of eligible households are on a social tariff, meaning the scheme is failing more than four million households.
According to research by Broadband Savvy, broadband firms are not giving visibility to social tariffs. It found that, currently, only one in four major broadband providers’ websites display their social tariffs prominently.
It found that Virgin Media links to its social tariffs in its website header, and KCOM flags their availability during the checkout process. But none of the other major providers give meaningful visibility of social tariffs for new customers signing up.
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Tom Paton, founder of Broadband Savvy, said: “The problem is, very few people know that these deals exist. This has been an ongoing issue, since it was revealed in mid-2023 that just over 5% of eligible households were signed up. Since then, Ofcom has failed to effectively address this problem, even though 1.9 million households currently struggle to afford their fixed broadband connection.”
Social tariffs are supposed to be accessible to existing customers, including those in-contract. However, the majority of consumers on benefits are unaware that they have the ability to switch to a cheaper plan in the middle of their existing agreement.
Paton added: “Broadband contracts are almost always very inflexible, and consumers are aware of this. For example, if you want to leave a contract completely, you often have to pay almost the entire remaining value of any future payments as an early termination fee.
“At the moment, people find out about social tariffs when they reach their absolute financial limit, and let their provider know that they have no way to pay their bills. Only then are they offered a social tariff as a way to keep them as a customer. Putting people through this is inhumane – we should be letting eligible consumers know that they can switch to a cheaper plan.”
Broadband Savvy suggested that social tariffs should be advertised alongside regular broadband deals on broadband providers’ websites. It also noted that the ownership structure of major broadband providers can cause confusion.
“BT owns EE and Plusnet, but only offers a social tariff under its BT brand. The problem is, a Plusnet customer might not know that BT owns their broadband provider. So when they search the Plusnet website, and don’t find a social tariffs page, they might not know that they can be transferred to BT’s social tariff, if they call BT,” Paton added.
