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A new study has highlighted how some of the UK market’s largest fixed broadband ISPs, including BT, Sky Broadband, Virgin Media and Vodafone, appear to be failing in their commitment to making cheaper Social Tariffs easier to access (available to those on state benefits). Instead the providers were found to make the tariffs and their details hard to find and often with unclear contract terms or pricing.
Social Tariffs are typically only available to those consumers in receipt of certain state benefits (e.g. Universal Credit), which can vary between providers. But as both Ofcom and the National Audit Office (NAO) have previously pointed out (here and here), one of the biggest obstacles to take-up remains a lack of awareness (only 34% of eligible broadband users were aware of such tariffs in April 2026).
Little wonder then that Ofcom’s last annual report on this subject estimated that, out of households in receipt of UC, just 532,000 had taken a social tariff (8.6% of those eligible). A standard commercial broadband plan usually costs an unemployed person claiming UC an average of £27 per month (8.3% of their monthly disposable income), while a social tariff costing c. £15 reflects just 4.6%.