New O2 Essential Plan for those on social benefits

O2 Essential Plan will offer those on lower incomes in receipt of certain benefits an affordable way to keep their mobile devices connected.

Costing just £10 per month, eligible customers will get 10GB of data a month, plus unlimited minutes and unlimited texts.

The plan is available to both new and existing customers on a 30-day rolling contract and has no setup or exit fees, and no price changes while customers need support.

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O2 Essential Plan

O2 mobile is launching a new social mobile tariff for customers on low incomes to help them stay connected with a more affordable option.

The O2 Essential Plan is available for both new and existing customers in receipt of a range of social benefits, and costs just £10 per month for 10GB data, unlimited calls and unlimited texts.

Eligible customers include those in receipt of:

• Income-based Employment Support Allowance
• Income-based Jobseekers Allowance
• Income Support
• Pension Credit
• Universal Credit

The Essential Plan from O2 is made available on a 30-day rolling contract, and there are no activation or setup fees, or early exit penalties to pay if a customer wants to end the plan.

As a social tariff, the plan is also excluded from any annual price rises, so customers won't see prices rise all the time they remain eligible.

Christian Hindennach, Chief Commercial Officer at Virgin Media O2, said, "Virgin Media O2 is proud to offer a range of comprehensive measures to help people on low incomes to get online and stay in touch with loved ones.

"While we know mobile connectivity in the UK is already very affordable, the launch of the O2 Essential Plan builds on our wide range of existing support for people experiencing financial difficulties. This includes our broadband plan for people receiving support payments, the National Databank providing free mobile data for people in need, and our Community Calling scheme which rehomes smartphones with people who need them."

Social tariffs

The O2 Essential Plan joins Virgin Media's social broadband tariffs, Essential Broadband and Essential Plus Broadband, previously launched in November 2020 and November 2022 respectively.

These plans offer customers in receipt of certain benefits access to low-cost fixed line broadband with average download speeds of 15Mbps and 50Mbps for £12.50 and £20 per month.

The expansion of social tariffs became popular during the cost of living crisis, with an increasing number of providers offering them as regulator Ofcom put pressure on the market to ensure all customers had an affordable option to move to.

O2's launch of their own social mobile tariff has come more slowly however, with EE Basics, Smarty (on behalf of Three), and Voxi for Now (on behalf of Vodafone), all already offering at least one social tariff option.

The O2 Essential Plan also stands up well against these established offerings, although Smarty and VOXI For Now offer unlimited data, as the table below shows:

Read more on social tariffs in this guide.