Protected Services Scheme | Here For You

If you have a disability, or are housebound and at risk without your phone or broadband line, this free scheme ensures that your service won’t be cut off if you either forget to or can’t pay your bill due to exceptional circumstances.

For example, this might be because you or someone in your household has:

an illness that requires a stay in hospital
Alzheimer's or another dementia
any other cognitive condition.

How it works

When you apply, we'll ask you to nominate someone you trust to be your second point of contact for anything to do with your bill. They won’t be responsible for anything you owe – they’re just someone we can contact if we need to.

So if you miss a payment, or you don’t reply to our letters, emails or calls, we’ll get in touch with your chosen contact to understand why we haven’t been able to reach you. We’ll work with them and do all we can to help you stay connected.

If you’d rather not have a second point of contact, just give us a call. We’ll tell you about the other ways we can help you.

How to apply

There are three ways to register for the scheme:

Call us on 0330 123 4150
Fill out an application form and send it to:

BT Plc

PO Box 334

Sheffield

S98 1BT

We'll ask for your details, and for those of your second point of contact.

If your chosen contact's details change, or if you want nominate a new contact altogether, you'll need to let us know. You can do this by filling in a new application form, or by calling or emailing us.

Similarly, if your trusted contact won't be available for a long while, they'll need to tell us so we can arrange something else.

Please also get in touch if you no longer need to use the Protected Services Scheme.

If you have any questions about the scheme, if you aren’t sure if you can apply, or if you need help filling in the form, call us on 0800 800 150.

More options for managing your bill

If you know you're going to be away when your bill is due

If you know you’re going to be away when your phone bill is due, call us on freephone 0800 800 150.

We’ll help you sort things out in a way that suits you best. So we might be able to let you pay in advance, or we can send the bill to your new address.

Change the way you pay

Paying your bills by Direct Debit or Monthly Payment Plan means you won’t need to worry about being away or missing a bill.

Visit bt.com/directdebit to find out more. To set up or change the way you pay, give us a call.