Energy price cap
The next price cap, from 1 October to 31 December 2026
Announced ahead of time: electricity 26.32p a unit and 54.83p a day, gas 7.97p a unit and 29.68p a day.
Nothing to do yet. Take a meter reading on the day it starts.
Nobody writes to tell you when the rules move
What changed, and what it means for you
Benefit rates go up in April. The energy price cap moves four times a year. Whole schemes open and close with a press release nobody reads. Every one of them is money, and every one of them is here, dated, with a link to the official page so you can check it yourself.
2026
- Energy price cap
The energy price cap for 1 July to 30 September 2026
Electricity is capped at 26.11p a unit with a 57.19p daily standing charge, and gas at 7.33p a unit with 29.04p a day. The cap limits the price of a unit, not your bill: use more and you pay more.
Take a meter reading on the day it changes so the old rate cannot be applied to new usage.
- Rate change
Benefits and the State Pension went up
Universal Credit, PIP, Attendance Allowance, Carer's Allowance and the rest rose with the September inflation figure. The State Pension rose under the triple lock.
If you were turned down for something before April because you were just over a threshold, the thresholds moved too. It is worth checking again.
- New help
The Crisis and Resilience Fund replaced the Household Support Fund
Councils still hold money for households in crisis, but it is a different fund with different rules, and every council runs its own version. Some pay for food and energy, some for white goods or beds.
Ask your council directly, by name. Many do not advertise it and most will not tell you unless you ask.
- Closed
ECO4 and the Great British Insulation Scheme closed
The two schemes that paid for insulation, and in some cases a new boiler, for households on qualifying benefits both ended. Work already agreed before the deadline is still being completed.
If an installer is still offering you ECO4, be careful: check anything you are told against the official page before you sign.
- Rule change
Every forecourt now has to report its fuel prices
Under the Fuel Finder scheme, every filling station in the UK must report a price change to the government within thirty minutes of it happening. Before this, prices were voluntary and patchy.
It means the prices you see here are the ones on the pole, not an estimate. Check before you drive: the gap across five miles is often 10p a litre.
Changes we made ourselves
We ask you to trust that businesses cannot buy their way up the list. So when we change a listing by hand, recalculate someone's ratings, or remove a rating, that is published here too. It comes straight from the record of what was actually done, not from a list somebody remembers to keep. Nothing about any household appears: an erasure request is that household's business and publishing it would defeat the point.
- A site setting was changed7 September 2026
- A site setting was changed7 September 2026
- A site setting was changed6 September 2026
The live figures behind the ranking promise are on the proof page.
Hear about the next one
April is when most of it moves, and it is the easiest month to miss. Join free and the Sunday email carries anything that changed that week, in the same plain words as this page.
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