If you're on Pension Credit

A social tariff is a cheap broadband package for people on certain benefits. Same broadband, same engineers, same wire under the pavement. The only thing that's different is the price, and the only reason it's cheaper is that they'd rather you didn't know it existed. The provider keeps it off its usual marketing and sells it quietly to people who need it.

There is no fee to leave your current contract to move to a social tariff with your own provider. Ofcom sets that rule, so a provider cannot charge you an exit fee for switching to its own social tariff partway through a deal. It also cannot push through an in-contract price rise on a social tariff once you are on one. That second point matters right now. Everyone not on a social tariff is watching their bill go up every April, in a letter titled "an update to your service." On a social tariff, that letter does not come.

If you receive Pension Credit Guarantee Credit, you are in. Every major provider that runs a social tariff accepts it. You can pick on price, speed and whether the provider reaches your home.

• BT Home Essentials is £15 to £23 a month depending on speed, on a 12-month deal with no exit fee.
• Virgin Media Essential is £12.50 a month for 15 Mbps, on a 30-day rolling deal.
• Vodafone Essentials is £20 a month for 73 Mbps, with no in-contract price rise.
• Sky Broadband Basics is £20 a month, but only if you are already a Sky broadband customer.
• Hyperoptic Fair Fibre starts around £15 a month, in buildings Hyperoptic has wired, mostly flats.
• Community Fibre Essential is £12.50 a month for 35 Mbps, in London only, with no benefit check at all.

The two cheapest, Virgin Media Essential and Community Fibre Essential, both land at £12.50 a month. Community Fibre is London only. Virgin Media reaches more of the country but needs its cable to run past your door.

The providers gate these tariffs on benefits aimed at low income. Guarantee Credit fits that idea neatly, because it tops up a low income to a set floor. Savings Credit is a reward for having put a bit aside, so it does not always count as the same kind of proof.

BT is the clearest about this. Its page says "Pension Credit (Guarantee Credit)" in those exact words, so Savings Credit alone will not get you a BT social tariff. Most of the others, Sky, Virgin, Vodafone and NOW, just list "Pension Credit" without saying which part, which means Guarantee Credit is the safe assumption and Savings Credit alone is a gamble.

Hyperoptic is the one provider that doesn't split hairs. It lists "Pension Credit" and stops there. No mention of Guarantee, no mention of Savings, and it is the only major provider that does not narrow it down. That makes Hyperoptic the most likely to accept Savings Credit on its own. We say "most likely" on purpose. The page does not use the words "Savings Credit", so call Hyperoptic and ask before you count on it. If you are in a Hyperoptic building and you only get Savings Credit, that phone call is your best first move.

You still have routes. Try them in this order.

First, check whether you actually get Guarantee Credit as well. Plenty of people get both parts and never notice, because it arrives as one Pension Credit payment. Your award letter from the DWP spells out which parts you receive. If Guarantee Credit is in there, every tariff above is open to you.

Second, if you are in London, Community Fibre Essential asks for no benefit at all. Its own page calls it a no-criteria tariff. Savings Credit, no Pension Credit, doesn't matter. If Community Fibre reaches your address, you qualify.

Third, call Hyperoptic if you are in one of its buildings, for the reason above.

Fourth, check whether you receive any other qualifying benefit. Universal Credit is accepted by every provider, and so are Income Support and a few others. If you hold one of those, apply on that instead and the Savings Credit question never comes up.

For most providers there is no paperwork and no benefit letter to dig out. You give them your details, including your National Insurance number, and they check your benefit directly with the DWP. The check is usually quick and you hear back fast.

Vodafone works a little differently. You register online, it runs an eligibility check and a credit check, then it calls you back. Hyperoptic does its standard check online too. Either way you do not need to post anything or sit on hold reading out a benefit reference, in most cases.

If your application is turned down, it is often a mismatch between the benefit type you hold and the one the provider gates on, rather than a flat no. The fix is usually to apply on a different benefit or get the check re-run, and we walk through what to do if a provider rejects you.

For the full picture across every benefit, the social tariffs hub pulls it together. If someone in your household gets Universal Credit, that is the simplest route of all, because every provider takes it. And if you want the step-by-step, the how to apply guide walks through it.