Help when you're struggling to pay

Please, please get in contact with us if you’re struggling with your bills. There are many ways we can help.

If you fall into debt for any reason, we can assist by:

• Providing some breathing space — maybe in the form of a short term deferment of payment
• Working directly with our team on a repayment plan that suits you
• Adjusting your payment methods to find one that works best for you
• Pointing you in the direction of experts who can help advise on your debt

There have been a few changes since last winter 2022:

• Ofgem, the energy regulator, has announced a decrease to the energy price cap that came into effect for bill payers from October 1, 2023. The price cap is set at £1,834 for an average household, compared to £2,500 last winter.
  
• Last year’s Energy Bills Support Scheme gave customers a total of £400 towards their energy bills. This scheme has not been extended to 2024, so your bills will likely feel the same as last year despite the falling price cap.

We're still working with the government and the wider energy industry, pushing for policies that give extra support to those who need it most. At the same time, we're looking after our own customers as best we can.

Green electricity now costs less to generate than fossil fuel power. So shouldn't that mean green power costs less to buy on the market?

Because of the (very flawed) way the market is currently set up, sadly not, though as the grid gets greener, this should change.

The price power sells for is dictated by the going rate for all different types of energy. At the moment, the UK's outdated wholesale market has a single price for electricity every half hour (which energy suppliers need to pay) and its usually mainly determined by the cost of gas. All energy sources in the UK, from wind to solar to fossil fuels, are being sold based on the high price of gas imports – the higher price of 'brown' electrons artificially putting up the price of 'green' ones as well.

🏠 In short, It’s like selling a house; the price is set by what neighboring homes are sold for, not the actual cost of building the house.

Renewable energy will make electricity a bit cheaper this year – in fact, turbines are generating so much cheaper than the current wholesale price that they're due to pay suppliers back for the extra they've earned ( £39 million up til now, but it could be lots more in the year ahead.)

We need much more renewable generation in the system, and the market should be reformed. Our CEO, Greg, talks about it more here.

Our biggest priority is making green energy affordable and accessible to all - especially, during an energy crisis. When prices were highest, we used £150 million from our own reserves to keep bills lower by swallowing more of the cost of power (our Flexible Octopus tariff was £50 below the price cap for loyal customers – the cheapest of any major supplier). We've consistently been the only large energy supplier to always charge below the price cap.

We have long been vocal about opposing standing charge increases, and have always kept them as low as possible, as well as offering a 4% discount on standing charges for certain tariffs. So far we have also offered 100,000 customers in need the ability to apply for a 6-months long standing charge holiday.

For customers struggling the most, we created Octopus Assist, a £15 million support fund which has now been increased to £30m to provide relief to those facing financial challenges. From offering free electric blankets to loaning out free thermal cameras to help customers find draughts around their home and supplying our infrared smart-phone cameras to see where heat is escaping, we have invested where it matters.

We've also invested in innovative programs like Octoplus Saving Sessions, where we provide customers with the ability to optimise their energy usage during specific times, ensuring they benefit from cheaper rates. Our Winter Workout and Power Ups schemes have also allowed our customers to save money and optimise their energy usage.

While multiple energy suppliers have gone bust, we're not going anywhere. Our cutting edge operating model and world leading tech have allowed us to direct millions of pounds towards supporting customers during this crisis, and safely take on customers from other bankrupt suppliers.

If you want to know more, this dedicated blog can tell you exactly how Octopus is built to last.

More than 90% of the costs of your energy bill are out of the control of your energy supplier.

The vast majority of that 90% is defined by the price of the wholesale energy we have to buy from the global market, but that 90% also includes taxes, VAT, and payments to companies who maintain the UK’s energy distribution system (the pipes and wires that transport gas and electricity).

Energy markets are highly regulated, so as an energy supplier we get charged certain costs for every single customer we have; even if they don't use any energy. These costs are passed on to customers via standing charges.

Costs have increased to cover expanding environmental and social schemes like Warm Home Discount - which will be available to more people this year, so costing more overall - and the ECO scheme. Plus, other things, like the administrative cost of taking over the customers of suppliers who've gone out of business, and some distribution costs moving from unit price to standing charge.

Recent regulatory changes - Ofgem's Targeted Charging Review - have increased those costs even more: which we opposed.

Our CEO Greg explains more here:

The electricity standing charge increase is driven by two changes to how much it costs us to supply your electricity. The first is the cost of failed suppliers (sadly its more than usual this year because half the retail market went bust in 2021). The industry has changed how customers are charged for using the distribution network – the cables that deliver electricity to your home. The costs of these networks have been moved from the unit charge to the standing charge.

Some of the increase in electricity standing charge is also due to the increase in the rollout of the Warm Home Discount which is set to be available to more people this year.

Gas standing charges have increased slightly, but not as much as electricity. This is because although the cost to cover failed suppliers is split nearly equally between the fuels, for gas this cost is added to the unit charge rather than the standing charge. The increase in gas standing charge is primarily due to extra Warm Home Discount costs.

Ofgem have broken down the up to date split of costs that make up a typical energy bill here

Why do standing charges vary based on where you live? It costs different amounts to get power to homes in different parts of the country. Each of the electricity distribution networks (DNOs) face different costs to maintain, upgrade and operate their networks. These costs are shared among their own customers, i.e people who live in the region where they operate.