Four energy firms pay millions in compensation over late final bills and overcharging customers – here's what you need to know

Below we explain who will receive these payments and what went wrong. If you need help with your energy bills in the meantime, see our What to do if you're struggling to pay your energy bills guide. 

Here's who's getting payments 

Here's who's getting what, though bear in mind most of these payments have now been paid: 

• E.on Next – up to £60 per household to almost 95,000 customers (£5.5 million in total)

• Good Energy – up to £60 per household to almost 350 customers (£18,000 in total), plus an average of £109 per household to around 7,000 customers

• Octopus Energy – up to £60 per household to about 19,000 customers (£750,000 in total)

• Ovo Energy – an average of £181 per household to around 11,000 customers

These suppliers have also paid a further £2.95 million into energy regulator Ofgem's 'voluntary redress fund', which supports charities to deliver energy-related projects, such as helping vulnerable energy consumers. 

Here's what went wrong

E.on Next, Octopus Energy and Good Energy missed or delayed payments they should have given to customers for missing the six-week deadline to provide final bills.

Under rules brought in from May 2020, known as the 'guaranteed standards of performance', suppliers are required to provide automatic compensation to customers for various service failings, including when final bills are produced too late. It entitles customers to an automatic £30 payment, and if this compensation is not provided within 10 working days, customers are due another £30 payment.

In addition, Good Energy failed to correctly adjust energy tariffs under the Price Cap and Energy Price Guarantee when certain users changed their payment method between January 2019 and October 2022.

Meanwhile, Ovo Energy charged some customers more than the Energy Price Guarantee between October 2022 and March 2023. See our Good Energy and Ovo Energy refunds MSE News story for more on this. 

Martin quizzes the energy regulator on compensation payouts 

MoneySavingExpert.com founder Martin Lewis spoke to Ofgem's Neil Kenward about the delayed bill payments, and other energy issues, on Good Morning Britain, on Wednesday 17 May. You can watch the clip below: 

From ITV's Good Morning Britain on Wednesday 17 May, courtesy of ITV. All rights reserved. 

What to do if you've not received compensation

In each of these cases, the suppliers have made the payments automatically – you don't need to do anything to receive them.

However, if you switched away from E.on Next, Octopus Energy or Good Energy in 2020 or 2021 and your final bill was sent to you after the six-week deadline and you have no record of a compensation payment, you can contact the relevant firm to check if you're due anything.

If you were a Good Energy customer who changed their payment method between January 2019 and October 2022, or an Ovo Energy customer between October 2022 and March 2023, and you think you've been overcharged, you can contact the relevant supplier to check.