Electricity

If you pay for energy by topping up and you're on a traditional (non-smart) meter, you have just days left to redeem your six Government energy support vouchers worth £66 or £67 each before they expire on Friday 30 June. Here's what you can do if you haven't got your vouchers, you're having problems redeeming them or they've expired.

The Royal British Legion, the UK's largest charity dedicated to supporting the armed forces community, has launched a grant scheme for veterans and their families who are struggling to pay their energy bills. The initiative will provide non-repayable emergency grants of up to £1,200 (£200 a month for up to six months), and is available across the UK.

Millions of Shell broadband and energy customers could be moved to a new provider in the coming months as the supplier has announced plans to sell these parts of its business following a "strategic review" – though there's no immediate change to your services and you should keep paying your bills as normal. 

Around 18,000 Good Energy and Ovo Energy customers have been, or are to be, refunded and offered compensation after the energy firms were found to have charged some users more than the maximum rates allowed. 

Some households with Boost prepayment meters have been hit with unexpected extra charges – totalling hundreds of pounds in some cases – due to a billing error which meant they had been paying too little for their energy. Below we explain what's happening and your rights.

Energy bills are rising for many this month despite the postponement of a 20% planned price increase in April. This is largely due to two reasons; firstly, the Government's £66 or £67 monthly support payments have stopped, and secondly, some suppliers are also reviewing direct debit levels at the same time. Here’s what you need to know.

British Gas has cut gas prices for over a million of its prepay meter users as of Saturday 1 April, bringing them in line with the rates paid by those on direct debit. The change means these customers will save an average of £59 each on their gas costs over the next year. Here's what you need to know. 

Typical household energy bills will remain at £2,500 a year for at least three months from 1 April as the Government has heeded our and others' calls to postpone a planned 20% rise. The announcement ahead of today's Budget follows a month-long campaign led by Martin Lewis, founder of MoneySavingExpert.com, which has been backed by 130 charities and consumer organisations. 

Prepayment meter customers typically pay more for their energy than those paying by direct debit. But the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt says from 1 July the "prepayment penalty" will end, cutting bills for over four million households.

Energy companies have agreed to stop forced installations of prepayment meters, industry regulator Ofgem has confirmed. This includes the remote switching of smart meters into prepay mode, as well as physical meter installations through the use of court warrants. It follows reports that some households were being forcibly switched despite being clearly vulnerable.