Octopus Energy to pay £1.5m over prepayment meter billing error

Britain's largest residential state and energy supplier is acceptable to wage £1.5m successful refunds and compensation aft failing to supply customers with last bills wrong six weeks, Ofgem has said. 

Octopus Energy has agreed to wage an mean of £43 per affected lawsuit successful compensation and redress, to a full of £1.48m.

It comes aft regulator Ofgem recovered much than 34,000 prepayment metre customers betwixt 2014 and October 2023 did not person their last bills wrong the indispensable timeframe.

The sum being paid by Octopus Energy includes refunds of £231,000 of recognition that was remaining connected accounts erstwhile they were closed, and a further £1.25m successful compensation to affected customers.

Octopus Energy now has 7.5 cardinal retail customers successful Britain, pursuing its 2022 rescue of the collapsed vigor supplier Bulb, and the consequent acquisition of Shell's location vigor business.

In January, it announced that it had go the country's biggest supplier - surpassing Centrica-owned British Gas - with a 24% marketplace share.

It besides has a further 2.5 cardinal customers extracurricular the UK.

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Beth Martin, manager for user extortion and contention astatine Ofgem, said: "It's important that customers person last bills successful accordance with our rules, truthful they are alert of immoderate recognition remaining connected their accounts and tin reclaim it.

"This is peculiarly important for prepayment metre customers who are much apt to beryllium successful fiscal difficulty.

"We are pleased that Octopus has present rectified the mistake and enactment things close with its customers, offering some refunds and compensation wherever it's due."

Ofgem said the contented was identified aft E.ON Next self-reported the aforesaid mistake to the regulator.

Octopus said Ofgem had spent "two years investigating an alleged contented with prepayment metre bills that had zero lawsuit complaints and had already channelled millions of pounds into customers' hands".

It said that portion Ofgem's ruling that prepayment customers indispensable person a last measure upon moving retired was "sensible successful principle", it was intolerable to instrumentality successful astir cases.