OVO's £50m Customer Support Package: everything you need to know
Our support package provides financial help and guidance for anyone in real and immediate need this winter. Whether you’re with OVO Energy, SSE Energy Services or Boost – we’re here for you.
What support we can offer
Direct financial relief
Direct Debit relief, emergency top-ups, and payment holidays for customers struggling to pay for their energy.
Hardship Scheme
Extra funds will be allocated to our Hardship Scheme, which can provide additional support via a range of measures.
Specialist support
Our highly-trained team can support you if you’re in financial difficulty or struggling for the first time.
Support if you’re in immediate need
Direct Debit customers
Our payment support tool can help you work out the right payment plan for you.
Options include reducing Direct Debits by up to 15%, to give you the chance to get on top of your payments.
Pay on demand customers
You can create a bespoke plan to spread out your payments.
The plan can now last up to 36 months – up from 24 months previously.
Pay As You Go customers
We’re increasing emergency credit from £5 to £15. And if you switch to Pay As You Go, we’ll check in with you regularly to make sure you can manage.
We’re also offering debt repayment holidays until 31 March 2023 – so every penny on the meter will go towards heating, not paying back debt.
Staying connected this winter
We won’t disconnect anyone who falls behind this winter.
If you can’t make your payments, contact us as soon as possible to find out about the tailored support we can offer.
Free and discounted products
We’ve given away 1000s of free and discounted products – like electric throws, smart thermostats, free boiler servicing and discounted boilers.
We had limited stock and these are no longer available, but we can still provide financial help and guidance.
Working with StepChange and the Trussell Trust
We’re continuing to support StepChange, the debt charity.
They provide vital support for those who need help with their finances in challenging situations.
We’ve launched a new partnership with the Trussell Trust, the food bank charity.
This will help food banks meet increased demand this winter, and give practical support to help people through the crisis.
Chat to us for extra help
If you need financial support, please chat to our specialist team. We’ll discuss your situation and your needs, and let you know what support we can offer.
Common questions
We’re doing this to help our customers in need of additional support because of rising energy prices. Even with the government’s support, average household bills will still be 70% higher in real terms than last winter. We know this will have a significant impact on the household budgets of many of our customers and could make this winter a difficult time.
While we recognise this won't solve the energy crisis, our Customer Support Package can make a difference for our customers who need it most this winter.
OVO’s Customer Support Package started to roll out from October 2022.
We’re continuing to review how best to help those with a real and immediate need.
We want to help those who need it most, so we’d ask you to only apply if you’re struggling to pay your bills this winter.
You may have experienced financial difficulty before, or this may be the first time. That doesn't matter to us. If you’re experiencing difficulty we want to try to help.
When you apply for support, we’ll take into account things like household income, disposable income, and medical needs to help us prioritise those who need help most.
We can’t help everyone, and some products and services are no longer available. But we hope to help as many people as possible this winter with our specialist teams.
You can do this online: apply for support.
We’ve contacted all Pay As You Go customers with details of what we’re doing to ensure no one goes off-supply this winter.
This includes extending emergency credit limits and pausing debt recovery.
The email includes details of how to apply for extra help.
When you apply, you’ll need the following information:
- Your household income
That’s the total income before tax of yourself and anyone who lives with you. This includes any benefits you’re entitled to, like your pension or Jobseeker’s Allowance.
- Your monthly disposable income
This is your income after tax, rent or mortgage payments and key bills. For help working this out, check out this making a budget guide.
- Whether your home has gas or electric heating, and if you have boiler insurance
This will help us work out the best support for you.
Yes, they can call OVO on your behalf as long as they have your permission to do so.
No. The support we’re offering as part of the Customer Support Package won’t impact your energy prices. We think it’s really important to help those who need it most during the current crisis, without adding further pressure to customer bills.
As always, however, your bills will be influenced by how much energy you use. That means if you receive a free product like a smart thermostat or an electric throw as part of our Customer Support Package, your use of these products will help determine what you pay for your energy.
Yes, customers from OVO Energy, SSE Energy Services and Boost can all apply for help from the OVO Customer Support Package.
All of our customers will be asked the same questions about their current situation, and we won’t prioritise support based on brand.
We have an option to reduce your Direct Debit, which you can apply for online.
Here are some other tips to help you save energy and money this winter:
Reduce your home’s energy loss
If you can, add insulation like a hot water cylinder jacket to your hot water tank, or reflector panels behind your radiators.
Reduce unnecessary energy use
See tips on how to:
You can also check the Energy Saving Trust’s guides to saving energy at home.
Keep track of your energy use
Smart meters measure how much energy you use, then share this info with you via your online account and on an In-Home Display (IHD). Unlike a traditional meter, you can see how much energy you’re using in real time on the IHD.
This can help you make small changes to reduce how much energy your home uses and cut your bills. To find out if you’re eligible, use our smart meter appointment tool.
If you’re eligible, we’ll confirm exactly what support we can offer you, and what will happen next. We’ll tailor support based on each customer’s needs.
No. While some suppliers are providing forms of support, each supplier’s plans are different.
As it stands the Customer Support Package runs until the end of March 2023, or until the products and financial support run out. That’s why we’ll be keeping a close eye on the situation.
Supporting our customers is our top priority, and we’ll continue to work with the government to develop long-term energy market reform.
No, only one application per household is allowed.
We can offer you a range of support from the package (such as direct financial support), so you shouldn’t need to apply again.
If you apply more than once, only your first application will be processed.
If anything is wrong with a product you received, the product guides have contact details for the manufacturers and instructions on how to get in touch.
If the product has been damaged in the post, the process that follows depends on the product.
Electric throws
Purple Chameleon (the supplier) will arrange for returns to be sent to their distribution centre, via courier. You can get in touch with Purple Chameleon to organise this. Their contact details are on the product guide.
tadoº smart thermostats
You should call tadoº directly if the smart thermostat is damaged or faulty. Check the product packaging for details.
If you’ve changed your mind, or found that the tadoº is not compatible with your home heating system, you can return the tadoº to us. All you need to do is let us know and we’ll arrange this for you.
Google thermostats
We’ll update this page with information on how to replace or return Google thermostats soon.