Gas, electricity and water debt

Energy and water bills are essential costs, and the rules on what happens when you fall behind are different for each. This guide covers Great Britain’s energy rules, water in England and Wales, and how both kinds of debt fit into a debt solution.

Are energy and water debts priority debts?

• Gas and electricity: yes. Your supplier can, under strict rules, move you to a prepayment meter, and energy is essential. Deal with these arrears alongside rent and council tax.
• Water in England and Wales: usually no. A water company cannot disconnect a home that someone lives in as their only or main home. National Debtline treats water arrears as non-priority for that reason, but if water charges are included in your rent, they count as rent arrears. Keep paying for your current water use even if the arrears wait.
• Water in Scotland: yes, in practice. Water and sewerage charges are billed with council tax, so they are collected the same way as council tax arrears.
• Northern Ireland: households do not currently pay water and sewerage charges.

What must your energy supplier do if you are behind?

Ofgem’s rules mean your supplier must work with you to agree a payment plan you can afford. That can include a review of your payments and debt repayments, payment breaks or reductions, more time to pay, and access to hardship funds. The plan should be based on what you can actually pay, so have a budget ready when you call.

Other protections worth knowing:

• Catch-up bills. If your supplier did not bill you correctly, it cannot bill you for energy used more than 12 months before the bill, unless you blocked access to the meter or acted unreasonably.
• Priority Services Register. Every supplier keeps a register of customers who need extra help, for example because of age, disability, illness or a change in circumstances. Ask to be added.
• Complaints. If your supplier does not sort out a complaint within 8 weeks, or says it can do no more, you can go to the Energy Ombudsman. It is free.

Can your supplier put you on a prepayment meter?

Yes, but only if it follows Ofgem’s rules, which were tightened from 8 November 2023. Before fitting a prepayment meter, or switching a smart meter to prepayment, to recover a debt, a supplier must make at least 10 attempts to contact you and carry out a welfare visit.

A supplier must never fit one against your wishes in a household:

• that needs a continuous supply for health reasons
• where the occupants are aged 75 or over with no other support in the home
• with a child under 2
• where someone has a severe health condition and nobody in the home can top up the meter

Suppliers must also look carefully at households with children under 5 or with serious physical or mental health conditions. Where a meter is fitted under a warrant, the supplier must give £30 of credit per meter, or an equivalent period without disconnection.

If you already have a prepayment meter with debt on it, ask the supplier to set the amount taken towards the debt at a level you can afford. During a Breathing Space, your supplier cannot fit a prepayment meter without your permission or collect the debt through your meter.

What help is there with energy debt?

• Supplier hardship funds and trusts. Many suppliers run funds that can clear some or all of an energy debt. Ask your supplier and a debt adviser which ones you can apply to.
• Warm Home Discount. A one-off £150 discount on your electricity bill, for people who qualify.
• Ofgem’s Debt Relief Scheme. Ofgem consulted in late 2025 on a scheme to write off some energy debt built up between April 2022 and March 2024 by households on means-tested benefits. It depends on new legislation, and eligible households are to be contacted by their supplier rather than having to apply. Ask your supplier or a debt adviser whether it applies to you, and do not pay anyone who offers to apply for you.

What happens if you cannot pay your water bill?

A water company cannot cut you off or restrict your supply, but it can pass the debt to a collection agency or take you to the county court, where you will be able to make an affordable offer. Collection agencies are not bailiffs and cannot take your belongings.

Every water company in England and Wales offers help:

• Social tariffs that reduce bills for people on low incomes. Each company sets its own rules.
• WaterSure, which limits metered bills for people on means-tested benefits who have a large family or a medical condition that means using a lot of water.
• Payment plans and payment breaks, including weekly or fortnightly instalments.
• Water Direct, where the Department for Work and Pensions pays an amount from your benefits towards your bill and arrears.
• Hardship funds and trust funds, and some schemes where the company matches your payments and clears the rest.

If a water company threatens to disconnect you, or you cannot agree a way forward, the Consumer Council for Water (CCW) can help. Its help with bills page lists what each company offers.

Can energy and water debt go into an IVA, DRO or bankruptcy?

Yes. Gas, electricity and water arrears can be included in an IVA, a debt relief order or bankruptcy. What cannot be included is your future use: you must keep paying for the gas, electricity and water you use from the start of the solution. Citizens Advice says you must keep up with your gas and electricity bills during a DRO.

• In an IVA, the supplier is bound for the arrears included, and your ongoing energy and water costs are built into your budget before your IVA payment is worked out.
• A debt relief order is free and is for people with debts under £50,000, less than £75 a month spare, assets under £2,000 and a vehicle worth less than £4,000. Energy arrears are a common part of DROs.
• In bankruptcy, arrears owed on the date of the order are included.

IVAs and DROs are available in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, see debt solutions in Scotland. The debt solutions comparison sets out the costs and effects of each option.

What to do next

1. Call your energy supplier with your budget and ask for a payment plan based on what you can afford. Ask about hardship funds and the Priority Services Register at the same time.
2. Ask your water company about its social tariff and WaterSure, and whether it has a hardship or trust fund.
3. Get free, impartial debt advice from MoneyHelper, StepChange, Citizens Advice or National Debtline. An adviser can apply to trust funds with you and look at your other debts: see where to get free debt advice.

For rent, council tax and other kinds of debt, see types of debt. If you use our checker, we may pass your details to a licensed insolvency practitioner or debt adviser.