UK households could be handed £2,000 compensation as the Met Office warns of power cuts. If you live in England and your power is cut due to bad weather, you may be eligible for £85 in compensation if it was off for 24 hours.
You could receive an additional £40 for each extra six hours you are without electricity. This is capped at a maximum compensation of £2,000, it has been advised by Citizens Advice, as the UK faces snow storms in January and warnings of power outages.
The advice group said: “The compensation you get depends on the reason for the power cut and how long it lasted. Your electricity network operator should try to contact you and pay you the correct amount without you needing to make a claim.”
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If the cut was caused by bad weather, your electricity network operator should pay you in a reasonable amount of time. If you haven’t been paid within 4 weeks of the power being back on, you should contact them to make a claim, it adds.
If the cut wasn’t caused by bad weather you should be paid within 10 working days. If you haven’t been paid in that time, you should contact your electricity network operator to make a claim. You should also get an extra £35 compensation.
The Met Office said: “It’s your Electricity Distribution Network Operator (DNO) who is responsible for maintaining physical electricity supplies to your home or business. DNOs own and operate the distribution network of towers and cables that bring electricity from the national transmission network to homes and businesses. They don’t sell electricity to consumers, this is done by the electricity retailers whose name appears on your bill.
The electricity network operators have introduced 105 – to give you an easy-to-remember number to call that will put you through to the local people who can help during a power cut.”