What is automatic energy compensation and when are you owed it?
Automatic energy compensation is a payment your supplier must make without you having to ask, chase or complain, under rules called the Guaranteed Standards of Performance. Most people have never heard of it, which is exactly why most people never claim it.
The current standard payment is £40, uplifted from £30 by Ofgem with effect from 2 January 2025, purely to keep pace with inflation since the rule was originally set in 2015. It applies across gas and electricity suppliers in Great Britain, on top of anything you might separately claim through a complaint.
Your supplier is legally required to pay it themselves once they miss the standard. You should never need to fight for it, though in practice plenty of households simply never get told it happened.
The 4 situations that trigger automatic energy compensation
Ofgem’s rules set out specific service failures that trigger a payment. The most common ones households actually run into are:
- A missed or broken appointment: your supplier or their agent fails to turn up, or turns up outside the agreed window, without a good reason.
- A delayed switch: your supplier fails to complete a switch to or from them within the agreed timescale.
- A late final bill: your supplier fails to send your final bill within a set number of weeks after you switch away or move out.
- An unpaid credit refund: your supplier fails to refund credit you are owed as a former customer within the required timeframe.
Each of these is a separate standard, so if your supplier misses more than one of them, you may be owed more than one £40 payment. What you do not get is a payment per day or per chase for the same failure: one ongoing breach of a single standard means one £40.
What if your supplier still does not pay automatic energy compensation?
If the supplier fails to pay within 10 working days of missing the standard, they must pay a second £40 on top, purely for failing to pay the first one on time. That is a real financial penalty for dragging their feet, not just a symbolic one.
If neither payment appears and your supplier is not engaging, that is when a formal complaint through your supplier’s own process, and then the Energy Ombudsman if they do not resolve it within 8 weeks, becomes the right next step.
Key takeaways
- Automatic energy compensation is currently £40, and your supplier must pay it without being asked.
- It applies to missed appointments, delayed switches, late final bills, and unpaid credit refunds.
- Missing more than one standard can mean more than one £40 payment, though a single ongoing failure pays once.
- A second £40 is owed if the first payment is not made within 10 working days.
- This is separate from, and can sit alongside, a wider complaint to your supplier or the Energy Ombudsman.
How is this different from making an Ombudsman complaint?
Automatic energy compensation does not require you to complain at all. It is meant to be paid the moment your supplier misses one of the specific standards, with no form to fill in and no case number. An Ombudsman complaint, by contrast, is what you use when something has gone wrong more broadly, such as a billing dispute or poor service that is not covered by one of these specific triggers, or when your supplier’s own complaints process has failed to sort things out.
In practice, plenty of households only find out about the £40 payment while pursuing a completely different complaint, which is the whole problem with a right that is meant to be automatic but rarely gets flagged to the customer at the time. There is no requirement for a supplier to tell you that automatic energy compensation exists, only to pay it once a standard is missed, and those two things do not always happen together in the real world.
If you are not sure whether a specific incident on your account qualifies, ask your supplier directly which Guaranteed Standard applies and whether a payment is due. Keep a note of appointment dates, switch confirmation dates and any final bill deadlines, since having your own record makes it much harder for a supplier to simply say the delay did not happen.
Is the £40 payment likely to go up again?
Yes, in principle. Ofgem uplifted the figure once already and now adjusts these payment amounts each regulatory year in line with inflation, so the exact amount is not fixed forever. Nothing here should be read as a promise of a specific future rise, only that the figure moves and the rules around it are reviewed. Check Ofgem’s own guidance for the current confirmed amount before relying on any number, including the one in this article.
Frequently asked questions about automatic energy compensation
- Do I need to apply for automatic energy compensation?
- No, by design automatic energy compensation should be paid without you asking. If it has not appeared, contact your supplier directly and ask whether a Guaranteed Standard has been missed on your account.
- Does automatic energy compensation apply to gas and electricity?
- Yes, the Guaranteed Standards of Performance rules cover both gas and electricity suppliers in Great Britain.
- What if I switched supplier and never got my final bill?
- A significantly delayed final bill after switching is one of the specific triggers for a £40 payment. Contact your old supplier directly and ask about it.
- Can I get compensation for a supplier being rude or unhelpful?
- Not through this specific automatic payment, since it only covers the defined list of service failures. Poor service more generally is better raised through a complaint and, if unresolved, the Energy Ombudsman.
- Is this the same as smart meter compensation?
- No. Smart meter installation delays and faults are covered by a related but separate set of standards. See our dedicated smart meter compensation guide for that specific right.
Sources: Ofgem – supplier Guaranteed Standards of Performance payment uplift decision; Ofgem – adjustments to Guaranteed Standards of Performance; British Gas – Guaranteed Standards of Performance.
