Helping you resolve your constituents’ energy disputes
If your constituent or small business is having issues with their energy supplier, energy broker or heat network supplier, we may be able to help resolve their dispute.
Energy Ombudsman was founded in 2006 to provide a free and impartial dispute resolution services for consumers – whilst helping suppliers understand their consumers and improve their experience.
Approved by Ofgem, and with over 2,500 energy companies signed up to our scheme, Energy Ombudsman is the largest alternative dispute resolution scheme in the UK energy sector.
How can we help?
We can help constituents who have disputes with:
- Energy suppliers
- Energy brokers
- Heat networks
- Network operators
Common disputes include:
- Billing & payments
- Smart meters and Feed-in-Tariffs
- Problems that arise as a result of switching energy supplier
- The way an energy product or service has been sold, including doorstep sales
- Sales processes
- Maintenance & delays.
- Loss of service
If you think we can help your constituent
If you think your constituent has a case that should come to Energy Ombudsman, you can either:
- Signpost and encourage your constituent to come to us via our website or phone lines
- Secure consumer consent for us to make contact with your constituent directly.
Our process
Our simple process makes it easier than ever to raise a dispute with your constituents energy supplier or broker. All energy suppliers and heat network suppliers are on our scheme, however you'll need to check whether brokers have signed up to our scheme. (Brokers have a choice of which dispute resolution scheme they use to handle complaints). If the broker is signed up to our scheme, we’ll be able to help. You’ll be able to find out if a broker is a part of our scheme using our Energy Brokers Register search.
Here's what our dispute process looks like:
*Before raising your dispute with us, please allow the supplier or broker an opportunity to put things right as per their complaints process. Only once both parties have reached deadlock, or the dispute has remained unresolved for eight weeks or longer may we look into your dispute.
Helping your constituents to access our service
Here at Energy Ombudsman, we're committed to treating everybody with fairness and respect. We want our services to be accessible for everyone, so have worked hard in removing barriers that people may face. We understand everyone has unique circumstances and sometimes people need us to do things differently for them to ensure they can get the best service from us, which is why we believe it's important that we make our services easy to access.
- Audio or verbal communication only
- Written/email communication only
- Sign Language
- Large print and Braille
- Written communication in foreign languages
- Audio communication via interpreter
- Request for an advocate or third party to help you with the dispute
How we can support you in Parliament
As well as helping your constituents with their energy disputes, we use our expertise and evidence from our services to influence policy.
We can support your parliamentary work by:
- Drafting suggested verbal and written questions
- Providing briefings for parliamentary debates, including on relevant Bills
- Providing data
- Supplying information about our services to share with your constituents
- Meeting with you to discuss our campaigns and policy work
For more information, or to order more signposting materials, please get in touch on parliament@energyombudsman.org or complete our contact form below.
Get in touch
If you would like to raise an issue on behalf of a constituent, or if you would like to discuss how we can help you in any other way, get in touch using the form, or email us at parliament@energyombudsman.org