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<p>The Government continues to work closely with Ofcom on the affordability of telecoms
services, including social tariffs.</p><p> </p><p>In December, Ofcom’s Pricing Trends
report, showed that 380,000 UK households now take up a social tariff, an almost 160%
increase from the previous September, but just 8.3% of the total number of eligible
households.</p><p> </p><p>The Government accepts that more is needed to ensure that
low-income households are aware of social tariffs as well as other support that is
available. However, it is also important to recognise that social tariffs may not
be suitable for every household on Universal Credit, and commercial bundled packages
- offering TV, broadband, landline and mobile services - may represent overall better
value for money.</p><p> </p><p>The Government and Ofcom continue to press operators
to do more to raise awareness of social tariffs to their customers, with the regulator
recently publishing <a href="https://www.ofcom.org.uk/research-and-data/behavioural-insights/low-income-consumers-buy-high-quality-lower-cost-broadband"
target="_blank">research</a> into the barriers to communicating offers to eligible
households.</p>
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