Energy Debt, Arrears and Credit Balances

Every three months Ofgem publishes how much money British households owe their energy suppliers, how many accounts are behind, and how much customers are holding in credit at the same time. Both sides of that ledger moved sharply after 2021 and neither has returned to where it started.

These are among the most useful numbers Ofgem produces and among the most often misquoted, because the thing being counted is not the thing most people assume. This page shows the official figures and is careful about what they mean.

What Ofgem counts as debt

Ofgem splits households behind on their energy into two groups, and the distinction matters more than the headline total.

• Debt with an arrangement. The customer owes money and has agreed a repayment plan. Uncomfortable, but under control — somebody has worked out what is affordable and the balance is coming down.
• Arrears without an arrangement. Money is owed and there is no agreed plan. This is the group worth watching. It usually means the household has not engaged with the supplier, or has and no affordable plan was reached.

Ofgem also publishes the average amount owed in each group. Average debt rising while the number of accounts holds steady means existing debts are deepening rather than more households falling behind — a different problem needing a different response, and one the headline count on its own would hide.

The latest figures

Electricity and gas are reported separately, and the figures below keep them that way for the reason set out in the next section.

These are accounts, not households

This is the one thing to take away before quoting any of these numbers.

Ofgem counts fuel accounts. A household with both gas and electricity in arrears with the same supplier appears twice — once in each series. Adding the electricity and gas figures together and calling the result “households in debt” roughly doubles the real number, and it is done constantly.

There is no clean way to convert accounts into households from the published data, because Ofgem does not say how many customers hold both fuels in arrears at once. So we do not attempt the conversion, and the electricity and gas series stay apart everywhere on this page.

The other side: money held in credit

At the same time as some customers owe money, others have handed over more than they have used. Ofgem tracks that too, for households paying by fixed Direct Debit.

Some of this is simply how Direct Debit works. Energy use is far higher in winter than in summer, and a fixed monthly payment smooths that into twelve equal instalments. Balances build through the summer and are drawn down over the winter. A credit balance in September is the system working as designed.

The question is whether it clears. If yours is still large in March, after a full winter of use, the monthly payment is set too high and you are lending your supplier money for nothing. You can ask for it back — submit an up-to-date meter reading first, so the request cannot be refused for resting on estimates.

Ofgem publishes the total held, the average per household and the quartiles. The quartiles are the interesting part, because averages hide a long tail of households sitting on very large balances.

Self-disconnection, and a broken series

For prepayment customers, running out of credit means the supply stops. Ofgem calls this self-disconnection and publishes both the number of customers affected and the number of events.

Two cautions. Not every self-disconnection is financial distress — a short gap because nobody got to the shop is not the same as a household going cold. And, more important for anyone reading a trend: Ofgem widened this collection in mid-2023 from the largest eight prepayment suppliers to all suppliers. The rise across that boundary is partly more suppliers reporting, not only more households self-disconnecting. The figures above mark where that break falls rather than drawing one continuous line through it.

What this means if you are behind

Nothing here is advice about your own account, but two things in these figures are worth knowing if you are in that position.

The first is that you are not unusual. The number of accounts in arrears runs into the millions and suppliers deal with it every day. There is no realistic prospect of being the first person to raise it with them.

The second is that the group in arrears without an arrangement has the worst outcomes. Moving from that group into the other is the single most useful step available, and it starts with contacting the supplier. They are obliged to offer a repayment plan you can actually afford — based on what you can pay, not what they would prefer.

Where to get help

Free, independent help exists, and it is worth using before the position gets harder to unwind.

• Citizens Advice is the statutory consumer body for energy. Free, independent, and used to these conversations.
• Your supplier’s support team. Every supplier must have one, and most have hardship funds or grants that are not advertised loudly. You generally have to ask.
• The Priority Services Register is free and gives extra protection if you are of pension age, disabled, chronically ill or have young children. Ask your supplier to add you.

If you are thinking about moving supplier while you owe money, read switching suppliers while in debt first — it is often possible and the rules are more generous than most people expect. If the problem is how a supplier has handled you rather than the money itself, the official complaints figures show how each one performs, and our supplier reviews go through them one by one.