Domestic billing performance assessment
- Publication type:
- Research
- Publication date:
- Topic:
- Compliance and enforcement,
- Consumer protection,
- Electricity supply,
- Gas supply,
- Metering
Findings from Ofgem’s domestic billing project, highlighting performance, consumer risks and areas where suppliers must improve.
Main points
- Most customers receive accurate bills, with 81% based on actual meter readings at first issue and 89% after reconciliation, demonstrating strong overall billing performance across the market.
- 97% of customers received a bill within 30 days of its due date, helping most consumers to manage their usage and payments effectively.
- Approximately 1 million customers are registered for the priority services register meter read service, demonstrating the significant scale of support provided to customers in vulnerable situations.
- Suppliers wrote off more than £172 million in charges for almost 1 million customers under backbilling protections, but weaknesses in recording and applying exceptions risk inconsistent consumer outcomes.
- Good supplier practices such as proactive monitoring, system alerts and strong governance are helping improve billing performance and should be adopted more widely across the sector.