Utilita will pay around £277,000 in compensation after failing to pay its payments on time. It comes following an investigation by the regulator .

Ofgem found that Utilita failed to pay Warm Home Discount payments, worth £150 and applied directly to electricity accounts, to 4,000 customers within the required timeframe in winter 2023/24.

The energy company said the mistake was caused by an internal error within its system. Utilita has agreed to pay £247,000 of compensation to those affected, who will receive further payments of up to £150 each.

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This is in addition to £30,000 of compensation Utilita paid to affected customers shortly after the error was identified.

Cathryn Scott, Regulatory Director of Market Oversight and Enforcement at Ofgem, said: “The Warm Home Discount is a lifeline for vulnerable energy consumers on low incomes.

“Even a short delay in making these payments can cause harm to vulnerable customers, so it's vital that suppliers make these payments on time and without hassle.

“Unfortunately, on this occasion, Utilita fell short of our standards by failing to pay some of their customers in a timely manner. Utilita has conducted an audit of their Warm Home Discount processes to make sure this doesn’t happen again.

“It’s our duty to protect consumers. Today’s outcome, as well as the findings set out in our Supplier Performance Report, serve as a reminder to all suppliers that failures to make scheme payments on time are unacceptable, and that we can and will take enforcement action to put things right for customers.”

A spokesperson from Utilita said: ”Due to an administrative oversight, we missed the 31 March deadline to process the Warm Home Discount (WHD) payment for a small cohort of customers.

”All customers received their payment within 12 days. We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused. We promptly reported our mistake to Ofgem and paid the impacted customers a goodwill gesture.”

The Warm Home Discount gives you £150 off your electricity bill, normally between October and March. It is applied automatically to your electricity account, or if you have a prepayment meter, you'll be given a top-up voucher.

If you're a dual fuel customer, you can ask your energy supplier if it is possible to have the discount applied to your gas bill instead.

If you live in England and Wales, you currently qualify for the Warm Home Discount if you get the Guarantee Credit element of Pension Credit, or you claim means-tested benefits and have high energy costs.

There are proposals to scrap the high-cost-to-heat threshold for the Warm Home Discount - which is a score that determines whether a property is considered to have high energy costs - for households in England and Wales.

If you live in , you qualify if you get the Guarantee Credit element of Pension Credit, or you claim a means-tested benefit. Some electricity providers have extra eligibility criteria.