Octopus Energy complaint: what you can claim

If your switch to a new energy supplier is not done within 5 working days, you are owed £40.

If you were switched to a supplier by mistake, you are owed £40. You are owed £40 more for each of these that also happens: the supplier takes more than 20 working days to reply to you, or more than 21 working days to move you back.

Your old supplier must send your final bill within 6 weeks of you switching, or it owes you £40.

If you are owed money when you leave, your old supplier must refund it within 10 working days of your final bill, or it owes you £40.

If you report a fault with a prepayment meter, the supplier must attend within 3 hours on a working day or 4 hours on other days, or it owes you £40.

If you report a fault with a standard credit meter, the supplier must act within 5 working days, or it owes you £40.

Since February 2026 you are owed £40 if you wait more than 6 weeks for a smart meter installation, if an installation fails because of the supplier, or if the supplier gives you no plan to fix a smart meter fault within 5 working days.

If a supplier owes you one of these £40 payments and does not pay it within 10 working days, it owes you another £40.

There is no set payment for a badly handled energy complaint. Compensation for poor complaint handling is decided case by case.

Your supplier cannot charge you for energy you used more than 12 months ago if it did not send you an accurate bill for it, unless you stopped it reading the meter, ignored requests to pay, or took energy illegally.

A supplier must not force a prepayment meter on a home where everyone is 75 or over, where there is a child under 2, or where the supply is needed for health reasons. It must first try to contact you at least 10 times and carry out a welfare visit, and it must add £30 of credit to each forced meter.

People who had a prepayment meter forced on them between 1 January 2022 and 31 January 2023 were covered by a compensation scheme of £250, £500 or £1,000 depending on the case.

You can join your supplier's free Priority Services Register if you are of state pension age, pregnant or have young children, have a disability or long-term condition, have difficulty with language, or are going through temporary hardship.

In England and Wales, the Warm Home Discount for 2026/27 is £150 off your electricity bill. You qualify if on 23 August 2026 you got Universal Credit, Housing Benefit, income-related ESA or Pension Credit and your name was on the electricity bill. It is usually applied automatically.

In Scotland, people in the core group get the Warm Home Discount automatically. Others must apply to their supplier.

In normal weather, if a power cut affecting fewer than 5,000 homes lasts 12 hours or more, you are owed £100, plus £45 for every further 12 hours, with no limit.

In normal weather, if a power cut affecting 5,000 homes or more lasts 24 hours or more, you are owed £100, plus £45 for every further 12 hours, up to £400.

In severe weather, you are owed £90 once the power cut passes 24 hours (category 1) or 48 hours (category 2), plus £45 for every further 6 hours, up to £2,235.

If you have four or more power cuts of 3 hours or more in a year, you are owed £100.

If the network turns off your power for planned work without giving you 2 days' notice, you are owed £40.

Complain to your supplier first. If it is not sorted within 8 weeks, or the supplier sends a deadlock letter, you can take it to the Energy Ombudsman for free. Suppliers must carry out the ombudsman's decision.

You must go to the Energy Ombudsman within 12 months of the deadlock letter. It can award up to £10,000 for a household.