Social Tariff Price Increase

[pinky80]

Last year when I became aware of the social tariff, I rang up to be placed on it. And I was. Looking online, the price of a social tariff doesn't increase inline with the other price rises so when I checked my bill today and noticed it had increased by £2+ I was surprised to say the least. On the phone to Sky were hopeless. They say I'm not on the social tariff which is strange when I asked to be placed on it and was told I had been last year. So they're using this as an excuse to up my price and I'm getting nowhere with their customer service. Can anyone advise please? I guess they record all calls so they'll have a record of my call when I requested it and my price was changed to £20pm but how do I go about proving this? 

[caesarome]

I take it that they have sent no email or letter advising you of this £2 increase and that comparing your last few bills doesn't shed any light on the increase ?

[Mark39]

@pinky80 which Sky services do you have?

[pinky80]

Yep nothing to inform me of the price increase. I've been on the phone to them for an interminable amount of time and they have said they are going to review the phone call I made last year requesting the change. They will indeed find that I requested the social tariff! While I was on the phone they tried to offer me Sky Cinema and a SIM card 🤦🏼‍♀️  I hate dealing with their foreign call centres with a passion. For the price we pay we should have UK call centres! 

[pinky80]

I have everything:

Sky TV

Broadband

Mobile

[Mark39]

Sky tv isn't included in the social tariff, so that may be where the increase is coming from.

[TimmyBGood · Accepted solution]

@pinky80 

As @Mark39 indicates, the social tariff scheme is for broadband and landline, with some telcos also offering a mobile bundle. Subscription television isn't regarded by government as an essential service and so there's no encouragement for providers to have lower pricing for it linked to benefit receipt.

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/advice-for-consumers/costs-and-billing/social-... 

It's also possible that some social tariff customers may have been convinced to add Broadband Boost or Max WiFi (wrongly, in my opinion) and those aren't exempt from annual price rises.