Additional support for customers

British Gas

• British Gas’ £140 million support package continues to provide extra support to customers facing financial hardship – including free energy grants (of up to £2,000) through the British Gas Energy Trust (BGET), tailored support for households and small business customers, and funding for advice centres and charities. 
• The company has a 20-year history of supporting all energy consumers (not just British Gas customers) through the British Gas Energy Trust (BGET), an independent charity, separate to, but solely funded by British Gas, that offers help to individuals across the country through energy debt relief grants, emergency small energy grants, a network of more than 40 funded money and energy advice projects, and an outreach programme that brings expert money and energy advice directly into the heart of communities. Since its launch, the British Gas Energy Trust has provided consistent, financial help for vulnerable households and remains one of the largest, grant giving energy Trusts in the UK. Since 2004 over £230 million has been invested to help more than 830,000 people manage their household budgets and energy costs.
• In February 2026, British Gas’ parent company Centrica announced a new £2.4 million, three‑year partnership with The Multibank to help households in or facing poverty across the UK. For the first time at this scale, Centrica, while supporting The Multibank, will help them provide further essential household goods to those who need it, and via the British Gas Energy Trust, connect people with direct, targeted energy support to help people stay warm, safe and secure.
• British Gas’ trained advisors are able to identify customers in financial difficulty and can offer payment plans to allow customers to spread their repayments over longer period, as well directing them to the further help and support available. 

EDF Energy

• EDF has announced a £30 million Winter Support Package to help vulnerable customers manage rising energy debt. This includes direct financial assistance, debt relief, additional credits, prepayment vouchers, tailored one to one support, and expanded partnerships with charities and advice agencies.
• EDF works with a range of partners to provide extra support for its diverse customer base. This includes Plymouth Citizens Advice for in depth financial guidance, IncomeMax which helps referred customers access an average additional income of £2,700 per annum, Charis Grants which administers funds and support, and, new for this year, TellJO, which proactively identifies and supports customers at risk of financial vulnerability.
• EDF is expanding its expert frontline teams so more customers with complex needs receive tailored, hands-on help. From September, EDF will also relaunch its Sunday Saver initiative, offering free electricity on Sundays to customers who reduce their usage during the week. EDF continues to offer fixed products that help customers save money compared with the price cap.
• Since 2003, EDF has supported more than 65,000 customers through its Customer Support Fund, which provides energy debt relief as well as replacing old or broken white goods such as washing machines, cookers and fridge freezers.
• Last year, EDF launched its Warmer Winter Shop, offering free, practical support to help customers stay warm and reduce energy costs. These bundles included heated throws, rechargeable hot water bottles, mittens and body warmers, flasks, and emergency cooking appliances such as air fryers and slow cookers.

E.ON Next 

• The E.ON Next Energy Fund supports eligible customers by clearing debt from their energy account and provides energy-efficient white goods such as washing machines, fridges, freezers and cookers when urgently needed.
• A provision of £10 million has been allocated to the E.ON Next Energy Fund to help support its customers during the cost-of-living crisis.
• E.ON Next’s energy specialists are specially trained to sensitively help customers in difficult circumstances, including those with complex health and social needs, changes in life circumstances, or problems paying outstanding bills.
• In collaboration with Paylink solutions, the company has implemented a digital tool enabling customers to build their household budget which they can submit to E.ON Next for review, ensuring customers who are struggling can be given more time to pay and an affordable repayment plan agreed to rid them of debt over time. This includes providing additional support credit to prepayment customers.
• Currently over 40% of E.ON Next customers are on its Priority Services Register, which ensures they can access the additional support that suits their needs.
• E.ON Next has long-standing and positive relationships with all the main debt advice charities, and collaborates with them in the design and delivery of customer-support solutions.
• E.ON Next is also collaborating with other charities such as Kidney Care UK, Age UK and MacMillan Cancer Support to provide bespoke training to its specialists, and to enable direct referral of its customers into those organisations where they can benefit from a range of services and support.
• All E.ON Next customers are eligible to exclusive offers on energy solutions such as energy-efficient boilers, solar panels and heat pumps. It also refers customers to its Obligation team to access paid-for energy efficiency measures that support their situations.
• Homes for Living is a scheme designed to support mobility, wellbeing and independence, offering free home aids and equipment designed to give more freedom in the home.
• E.ON Next provides 24/7 digital support to its customers via social media channels.
• E.ON Next has a specialised area to support its most vulnerable customers and has a higher proportion of advisors to support its customers. It has invested in bespoke training to support its people when dealing with customers in vulnerable situations.
• E.ON Next has allocated part of its Energy Fund to providing discretionary items for vulnerable customers including heated throws.
• E.ON Next has partnered up with Lightning Reach to provide access to personalised grants and up to 2,500 different schemes to customers facing financial hardship.

Good Energy

• Good Energy provides partial debt relief to some customers, while helping them to move onto any cheaper deals.
• It offers significant flexibility in repayment plan timescales and works with third parties to assist customers with debt management.
• It expanded customer service teams by 20% in one year to provide shorter wait times and improved account support.
• It offers extended support hours so customers can contact them outside working hours.
• It conducts targeted reviews that have improved staff training and customer communications related to customers struggling to pay their bills.
• Good Energy has introduced a dedicated prepayment team and direct phone line to provide fast, specialist assistance.
• It has improved the digital experience for prepayment customers, giving them better insights into their energy use.
• It has significantly increased the emergency credit available to prepayment customers, while determining Additional Support Credits levels on a case-by-case basis.
• Good Energy offers financial incentives for smart meter installation, which can help customers with visibility and budgeting of energy use and provide access to participation in money-saving flexibility services.
• It allows customers to benefit from flexibility services in winter to help them reduce their demand and save money.

Octopus 

• Octopus has created a £30 million Octo Assist financial hardship fund dedicated to helping customers who are unable to afford the cost of living. The fund has already helped more than 107,000 customers, with over 233,000 payments made to applicants.
• It has consistently priced its Standard Variable Tariff (SVT) below the price cap, absorbing £120 million on behalf of customers since the start of the energy crisis.
• It has committed £10 million to providing “standing charge holidays” of up to 6 months. So far, over 70,000 standing charge holidays have been provided to vulnerable customers.
• Last winter (2024/25) it committed a further £35 million to give Standard Variable Tariff customers a standing charge reduction compared to the price cap.
• Octopus Energy has, since late 2024, operated a “You Pay, We Pay” support scheme matching any incremental payments made by customers who opt in to this scheme. To date, over 40,000 customers have taken up the offer with Octopus paying out over £11m under the scheme’s terms.
• It has a scheme to provide free electric blankets for customers, providing 89,000 blankets so far. This on average saves £150 per household in the winter.
• Octopus helps customers save on heating bills through its thermal imaging camera loan scheme, which helps customers spot and fix draughts and heat leaks. So far, it has loaned cameras to almost 10,000 customers.
• It provides tailored in-person energy-saving advice and account help to reduce bills and support by visiting customers’ homes. So far this has supported more than 300,000 customers.
• It employs experienced social workers to provide expert advice and support to customers who are in challenging situations and/or vulnerable, with benefit-maximisation checks and home visits where necessary to offer any additional support or signposting.
• Octopus enables customers to round up their energy bills to support others, through donations to National Energy Action and Citizens Advice, raising more than £150,000 in 14 months.
• Octopus Energy, in partnership with the National Support Network, now has an external site available for use by customers that acts as a one-stop shop for those seeking local support across a range of issues. The site (octopusenergy.nsn.org.uk) enables our internal agents or the customer to locate services in their local area, to obtain support for those in need across a broad range of topics and life events.
• It offers domestic flexibility schemes to help customers save money by changing the way they consume energy e.g. ‘saving sessions’, which enable customers to save money by using less energy during peak periods. This has had more than two million participants, with £10 million in savings paid out so far. Additionally, Octopus has run several ‘power-up’ sessions where customers can access free electricity when there’s extra green energy on the grid.
• Octopus launched a brand-new industry initiative in 2023 as part of the Warm Home Discount Scheme, and have since provided 600 fuel-poor or at-risk households with free solar PV installation and batteries.
• It partnered with ‘Signvideo’ so customers can speak to agents through a British Sign Language interpreter using live video-call technology. It can offer 3-way call backs as well as face to face interpreting services.
• Octopus offers customers 24/7 emergency support. It has extended phone support from 5pm-8pm weekdays and has extended email support to 8 am-10 pm, 7 days a week.

OVO  

• OVO is continuing to provide an extensive financial and practical support package to customers who are struggling with the cost of living. This builds on the 75,000 customers supported through its customer support package over the last two winters.
• Customers registered on the Priority Services Register will be automatically routed to their specialist teams for tailored advice and support.
• Direct Debit relief, emergency top-ups and extended repayment plans are available for customers struggling to pay for their energy.
• Extra funds will be allocated to OVO’s Hardship Scheme, which can provide additional support via a range of measures.
• OVO’s highly trained team can support customers if they’re in financial difficulty or struggling for the first time.
• It works with various charities and organisations to provide additional support (such as benefit-entitlement checks or grants) and can directly refer eligible customers.
• It offers a payment support tool that can help customers work out the right payment plan for them. Options include reducing Direct Debits by up to 15% to give the chance to get on top of payments.
• Pay-on-demand customers can create a bespoke plan to spread out their payments. The plan can now last up to 36 months – up from 24 months previously.
• OVO is keeping emergency credit at the increased amount of £15. If customers switch to or are already on prepayment, OVO will check in with them regularly to make sure they can manage.
• It will not disconnect anyone who falls behind this winter. If customers are unable to make their payments, they must get in contact as soon as possible to find out about the tailored support it can offer.
• It has partnered with Experian to offer the industry’s first Open Banking digital tool. Payment Support provides bespoke repayment options, enabling customers looking for support to quickly access a detailed, accurate picture of their affordability and help find a solution tailored personally to suit their current circumstances. Customers will receive a personalised plan based on their financial data to help keep on top of payments.

ScottishPower 

Financial Support

• ScottishPower’s Hardship Fund provides support to customers who are struggling with bills and has provided £89.7m of help to their customers to date. In 2025 ScottishPower introduced a new process that undertakes applications on the behalf of most vulnerable customers, ensuring those most vulnerable have the additional support they need.
• It works with partner organisations, such as foodbanks, to provide meter credit to prepayment customers in financial difficulty via vouchers that do not need to be repaid. During 2025, ScottishPower provided customers with more than £121,000 worth of credit through this initiative.
• ScottishPower has processes that make it straightforward and fast for customers to request and receive additional support credit in order to best support prepayment customers in difficult circumstances. There is a ‘self-serve’ function in the ScottishPower app, which allows customers to request and receive additional support credit without speaking to an agent.
• ScottishPower proactively engages with customers at risk of hardship, including prepayment customers with a low meter balance, by offering a simple route to access further financial support.

Customer support

• ScottishPower continues to offer a range of options for customers to get in touch including phone, webchat and email options. It assesses the needs of its customers and adjusts its offering to ensure it meets customer needs; this includes extending opening hours over winter to make it easier for customers to get in touch.
• Its Digital Team includes an ‘Accessibility Guild’ dedicated to improving the digital experience for customers with additional accessibility requirements.
• ScottishPower offers intelligent routing of contacts to specialist support teams, ensuring customers in vulnerable circumstances receive tailored assistance across all channels (calls, webchat, email). This includes teams for prepayment customers at risk of going off supply, the Affordability Team for financially vulnerable customers, the Extra Care team for customers with non-financial vulnerabilities, and the Bereavement Team. Customers can share additional needs online or by phone, enabling timely and personalised support.
• To reduce the risk of prepayment customers going off supply, ScottishPower has extended periods where friendly non-disconnection applies; where this is not technically possible, it offers increased emergency credit.
• ScottishPower provides a dedicated phone line for Citizens Advice to contact the company on behalf of customers. Since launching its Third-Party Assistance Team in 2022, ScottishPower has expanded support to a wide range of organisations—from national bodies such as National Energy Action to local charities like South Seeds. By 2025, ScottishPower offers a direct third-party phone line to 20 organisations and works in partnership with charities to ensure customers receive the help they need.
• Recognising the wider impacts of financial hardship, ScottishPower has included mental-health and wellbeing training for all customer service agents to allow them to respond sensitively to customers who are experiencing such difficulties.
• ScottishPower continues to partner with SignLive, a free service which helps deaf customers to communicate via a British Sign Language interpreter, supporting agents and customers to communicate easily through ‘Video Relay Interpreting’.
• Customers with speech or hearing impairments can contact ScottishPower with the support of RelayUK.
• It also provides interpreters in many different languages to help support customers calling by phone if they do not speak English as their first language.

Information and advice

• ScottishPower’s long-standing and established team of Community Liaison Officers (CLOs) operates across Great Britain and carries out more than 4,000 visits each year to customers in their homes. It offers in-person advice and support on matters relating to energy accounts where this level of support is needed. This service has recently expanded, with CLOs working with Citizens Advice to hold in person advice surgeries.
• It promotes a range of support options for customers, based on their individual needs, including support provided by ScottishPower directly such as energy efficiency advice. Its Energy Insights tool within the ScottishPower app allows smart meter customers to easily track their energy habits, helping to pinpoint changes that could help them reduce their energy usage.
• ScottishPower maintains its strong partnerships with StepChange and Hope4U, working with them to provide specialist debt advice to customers as well as further developing the training of ScottishPower’s own customer service agents in matters related to dealing with customers in payment difficulty.
• ScottishPower started a partnership with Citizens Advice Plymouth with the aim of a joint outreach to around 2,000 vulnerable customers, using all available support tools to maximise their income and provide tailored support.
• ScottishPower has entered into a partnership with Plain Numbers to ensure its communications are clear, simple and easy to understand. The partnership aims to ensure complex and detailed communications are clear, accessible and can be easily read and understood.

So Energy

• The So Energy Fund provides targeted financial assistance and debt relief to eligible customers, helping them manage rising energy costs and reduce existing arrears.
• So Energy has doubled the number of advisors trained specifically to support customers in arrears. 
• It offers extended customer Payment Plans based on affordability checks and individual circumstances, adopting a ‘know your customer’ approach with flexibility in mind. 
• So Energy funds LEAP (Local Energy Advice Partnership) to provide comprehensive, year‑round support to its customers. Through LEAP, customers can access independent energy and debt advice, income maximisation support, appliance checks and servicing, and home retrofit guidance. So Energy customers are referred directly for specialist, tailored assistance.
• To support medically vulnerable customers with higher than average electricity consumption, So Energy has launched the So Solar scheme, offering fully funded solar panel systems and battery storage. During winter 2025/2026, more than 50 customers received free installations, helping reduce reliance on the grid, lower energy bills, and improve resilience for those with medical equipment needs.
• So Energy has partnered with Mencap to create clear guidance for customers who are new to energy services. These guides are written in plain, easy-to-understand English to assist vulnerable customers with literacy deficits in reading and interpreting their bills, while also highlighting the benefits of using a smart meter.
• It also commissioned the Plain English Campaign to review bills and statements in order to make them easier to understand. 

Utilita 

• Utilita continues to support customers through the cost-of-living crisis, providing a £20 million financial support package this winter.
• Frontline customer service capacity has increased by more than 50% to ensure effective support throughout the winter.
• Utilita is the only energy supplier that does not apply a standing charge when prepayment households use little or no energy. Instead, it uses a two-tier tariff, saving customers more than £30 million since the start of the cost-of-living crisis.
• A dedicated Extra Care Team supports Priority Services Register customers, who comprise more than half of Utilita’s customer base.
• Utilita remains the only supplier with High Street Energy Hubs in UK town and city centres, offering anyone – not just customers – advice on energy usage and affordability. Across 12 permanent Hubs, 60 advisers offer year-round, face-to-face support for vulnerable households, supported by community outreach and charity partnerships. In 2024, nearly 88,000 people visited the Hubs, and the team delivered almost 1,000 hours of community outreach.
• Utilita’s award-winning Energy High 5 campaign, launched in 2019, has educated millions of households about free and simple ways to save energy at home.
• Through its charity partner, Utilita Giving, vulnerable customers receive grants and tailored expert advice.
• Utilita’s Power Price List is the UK’s first live, comprehensive database showing the real costs and carbon emissions of 76 common household appliances. Designed to address the fact that 70% of households admit they don’t know appliance running costs, the campaign empowers customers to save money, reduce waste, and cut emissions.
• Utilita leads in prepay innovation, allowing customers to self-serve energy credit (repayable over a period of time, interest free) via the Power Up feature in the My Utilita App – used more than one million times annually – and transfer credit between meters.
• Utilita partners with organisations like IncomeMax, where referred customers see an average income increase of more than £2,500.

Utility Warehouse

• Utility Warehouse has established a dedicated front-line Ability to Pay team since 2019 to offer support and a range of payment options to customers in financial difficulty. This team doubled in size in 2022 to more than 50 advisers, to ensure the right levels of support to meet future increases in demand.
• This is on top of the existing Payment Solutions teams in place to manage customers in need of debt management support; this has increased by more than 20% in the last 12 months.
• In 2021, Utility Warehouse established a dedicated team to work in partnership with Citizens Advice Plymouth to support customers struggling with energy bill payments. They offer budgeting advice and benefits assessments for customers who are in payment difficulty. In the last 12 months, more than 6,000 Utility Warehouse customers have benefited from this service, and it was calculated that their disposable income could be increased by up to £9 million based on reducing unnecessary expenditure and claiming additional benefits.
• This year Utility Warehouse commissioned an increase in the size of the Citizens Advice Plymouth team from 13 to 17 advisors to provide more support to its customers. It plans to increase this by at least a further 50% to cater for the expected higher energy costs this winter and more than double the financial support available.
• It also offers a Customer Support Scheme via Citizens Advice Plymouth, where those seen to be in fuel poverty can have debt written off to help get them back on track.
• In addition, Utility Warehouse offers financial assistance, also via Citizens Advice Plymouth, so that customers about to go into debt or those who run out of credit on their prepayment meter can receive a payment of up to £150 to alleviate their situation.
• It has also invested in third-party data to help identify potentially vulnerable customers and reach out to prepayment customers who may have been experiencing hardship to advise them of the support available.
• A hardship fund was introduced in 2023 and doubled the financial support available to help customers via Citizens Advice Plymouth, and to recruit additional Citizens Advice Plymouth staff dedicated to Utility Warehouse customers. It also extended help to multi-service customers. Over the financial year 2024 it distributed more than £550,000 from the fund to support vulnerable customers.
• Its Customer Support Scheme and hardship fund allow for debt write-off up to £1,000 or £2,000, depending on individual circumstances. Advisers at Citizens Advice Plymouth determine who qualifies for additional support.
• Utility Warehouse has a range of customer comms planned to help people prepare for winter 2024. This will include advice and tips on boiler care, special comms for prepayment customers and those who are most vulnerable, and planned comms during cold snaps to ensure customers stay on supply and are aware of what help is available.
• It has developed smart meter guides for customers that demonstrate various actions such as topping up or manual meter reading (because improper use of smart meter features can lead to billing issues or service disruptions).