The Priority Services Register: who qualifies for free extra help from energy and water companies

Britain has a free list that is barely advertised and rarely mentioned on a bill: the Priority Services Register. Every energy supplier, every network operator and every water company keeps one. Joining costs nothing and changes nothing about your tariff. What it changes is how the company behaves towards you when something goes wrong.

What is the Priority Services Register?

It is a list of customers a company must give extra help to. Ofgem stresses a detail almost everyone misses: there are two such lists, not one. Your supplier — the company that sends the electricity and gas bills — keeps one. Your network operator — the company that owns the wires and pipes in your area and fixes faults — keeps another. They are different organisations, and you need to be on both.

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The help can be permanent or temporary. Ofgem explicitly allows joining "for a short period due to something that's happened in your life".

What help do you actually get?

Ofgem lists a concrete set. Priority support in an emergency. Advance notice of scheduled power cuts wherever possible. An identification and password scheme, so that when somebody visits or calls you can be confident they are genuine rather than a scammer. The ability to nominate someone — a family member, a carer, somebody you trust — to receive communications and bills. Moving a prepayment meter if you cannot safely reach it to top up. Regular meter reading services. Bills in large print or braille. Assistance reconnecting your gas supply.

Separately, Ofgem states that during both planned and unplanned power cuts network operators must offer register customers extra help — for example battery packs so they can still charge phones or medical equipment. What each company offers differs.

Who can join?

The grounds are broader than most people assume. Under Ofgem's rules you can ask to join if you have reached state pension age, if you are pregnant or have young children, or if you struggle with speaking or reading English. That last point matters directly to anyone who has recently moved to the UK.

You can also join if you live with a disability or a long-term medical condition, including mental health conditions, conditions affecting sight, hearing or sense of smell, and conditions that mean you need medical equipment that requires a power supply.

There is a separate category for recent change: recovering from an injury, needing support after a stay in hospital, bereavement, losing your job. That is the "short period" the register also exists for.

How do you join, and what does it cost?

Nothing. Contact your supplier or network operator directly — online, in writing or by phone — and give them as much information about your needs as you can. The contact details are on the company's website and on your energy bills.

Two traps Ofgem flags. First, if your gas and electricity come from different suppliers, you have to contact each one separately. Second, the entry does not travel with you: if you switch supplier, you have to ask to join the new one's register again.

What are you owed when the power goes off?

This applies to everyone, not only register customers, but it matters most to them. Report an unplanned cut on the free number 105, which puts you through to your electricity network operator.

The repair deadlines are set in law: 12 hours outside severe weather, 24 hours in severe storm category 1, and 48 hours in severe storm category 2.

Compensation is paid automatically — no claim needed. A home gets £100, and a business £195, if fewer than 5,000 properties are affected for more than 12 hours, or more than 5,000 properties for more than 24 hours. Every additional 12-hour period adds £45. The maximum is £400 where 5,000 or more properties are affected.

If you have had more than four power cuts between 1 April and 31 March, each lasting at least three hours, you could get a further £100 — but that one you must claim yourself.

Gas has its own rules. The gas network operator must give 7 working days' notice of planned work, and £40 extra is due if it does not. A planned gas cut pays £50 for a home, and an unplanned one £70 for every additional 24 hours off supply.

One more thing: if no payment arrives and several months pass, contact your network operator. A missed payment may be worth an extra £40.

What about water?

Water companies run the same kind of list. Thames Water shows what it buys you in practice: bills in braille, large print, on coloured backgrounds or in audio; a trusted person added to the account; a doorstep password scheme; a dedicated phone line; a check-in call if a pipe bursts nearby. If your supply stops, you cannot go outside and you need water for medical reasons, they deliver bottled water. Customers on home dialysis get more notice before planned work.

Registration is by free phone, and a carer, friend or family member can do it on your behalf. Each water company has its own contacts — look up the company that bills you for water.

What is the most common mistake?

Treating the register as a way to get money. Ofgem is explicit: you will not receive extra payments for being on a priority service register. The point is that on the day of a fault the company already knows there is equipment in your home that needs a socket, that you cannot reach the meter, that English is hard for you. The second most common mistake is joining once and forgetting: switch supplier, and the entry is gone.