Ofcom’s automatic compensation scheme: Have you received a refund?

What is Ofcom’s automatic compensation scheme?

Ofcom’s automatic compensation scheme allows you to get money back if you experience issues with your broadband service. This happens without you needing to claim for it, as long as your provider is signed up for the scheme.

You’ll receive compensation if you’ve experienced any of the following^[1]:

• Delayed repair after a loss of service - your service has stopped working and is not fully fixed after two full working days
• Missed appointments - an engineer does not turn up for a scheduled appointment, or it’s cancelled with less than 24 hours' notice
• Delays with the start of a new service - your provider promises to start a new service on a particular date, but fails to do so

You can find out if your provider is part of the scheme by checking Ofcom’s website. If you want to switch to one of these providers, compare broadband deals to make sure you’re getting the right package for you.

How many Brits know about the compensation scheme?

Our recent survey found that a huge 91% of UK adults don’t know what the Ofcom broadband automatic compensation scheme is.^[2]

Despite the majority (85%) of respondents using broadband providers who are a part of the Ofcom scheme in the last year, most of these customers still hadn’t heard of it. Providers like BT, EE, Plusnet, Sky and Virgin Media are all part of the automatic compensation scheme.

Younger adults were slightly more likely to have heard of the scheme, with the highest awareness rate being among those aged 18 to 34. Yet, there were still only 13% of this age group that knew about it. In comparison, just one in 10 of 35 to 54-year-olds and only 6% of over-55s had heard of the scheme.

Broadband users who have experienced issues with their service in the last year were more likely to have heard of the scheme. Among customers who had suffered delayed repairs, missed appointments or delays to the start of their service, 22% had heard of the scheme, compared to only 6% of users who’ve had no problems.

Close to a fifth (17%) of all broadband users told us they’d experienced one of those issues in the last year. This works out as more than 3.9 million households that would be eligible for compensation from their provider.^[3]

How much was owed to broadband users last year?

Our research shows that, in the last year, more than £114.9 million in compensation was owed to eligible broadband customers due to delays or missed appointments.^[4]

Delays

Delays were a problem for more than 3.5 million households in the last year, as 1.4 million experienced a late start of a new service and 2.1 million had to wait for a repair following a loss of service.

Of those who were delayed when waiting for the start of a new service, around one-quarter (24%) had to wait two days before things got up and running. A further 17% experienced a delay of three days, and 6% were delayed for four.

Around 18% waited just one day, and 12% claimed they were delayed for five. The Ofcom compensation scheme offers £6.10 for each calendar day of delay, meaning these customers were owed over £17.6 million in the last year by providers.

Meanwhile, one-fifth (21%) of eligible broadband users experienced a repair delay of one day, and nearly a quarter (24%) waited two days for their service to be fixed. It took three days for 18% of users to receive a repair, with one in 10 waiting five days, and 6% waiting three.

At a compensation rate of £9.76 for each calendar day the service is not repaired, these households were owed a whopping £40.6 million.

For some broadband users, delays can take even longer, meaning the total compensation owed would be much higher. Some survey respondents reported waiting many weeks and months for their repairs and new service to finally arrive.

Missed appointments

A whopping 1.2 million households would have been owed compensation due to missed appointments in the last year, according to our research. This is equal to approximately 5% of all broadband users who are with one of the providers in the scheme. The scheme promises £30.49 in compensation per each missed appointment.

Half of these customers experienced just one missed appointment, close to a third (30%) stated two were missed, and 13% experienced between three and five missed appointments. This equates to more than £56.6 million worth of compensation that should have been automatically paid to these users in the last year.

How can I claim compensation?

If you meet the criteria for compensation (your broadband provider is signed up to the scheme and you have dealt with one of the problems listed) and your broadband provider is aware of the issue, you should have been automatically compensated. This usually appears as a credit to your account within 30 days of the problem occurring.

If you believe you haven’t been compensated correctly, you should raise this with your provider. Ofcom also suggests using their approved alternative dispute resolution (ADR) service if your complaint goes unresolved.

About the data

^[1] Information on the automatic compensation scheme was taken from Ofcom’s website.

^[2] To collect the data used in this report, we surveyed 2,000 UK residents via YouGov. The survey was run on 19 December 2024 and all responses were selected at random. All statistics are sourced from this survey unless otherwise stated. Respondents were asked if they had been with a broadband provider in the last year, between December 2023 and 2024.

^[3] The estimated number of UK households using broadband was calculated by applying the percentage of UK broadband users (according to a YouGov survey of 2,000 UK adults run on 1 October 2024) to 2023 ONS figures on the number of households in the UK.

To estimate the number of households which should have been eligible for compensation in the last year, we first applied the percentage of survey respondents who stated their broadband was with one of the providers signed up to the scheme (85.27%) to estimate the number of households eligible. We then applied the percentage of those who said they had experienced any of the three problems with their broadband in the last year (16.77%) to this figure.

^[4] To estimate the amount that should have been owed in compensation in the last year, we first applied the percentage of respondents who said they had experienced each issue to the number of households using one of the providers signed up to the scheme (as calculated above). We then applied the percentage of users who experienced delays from one to five days, as well as the percentage of users that experienced between one and five missed appointments.

We then applied the compensation cost per day/appointment for each issue to the total number of households who had experienced them. The compensation owed for all three problems was summed to get the overall compensation figure.