Do you need to take a meter reading before 1 October?

Update, 13 October 2026: the cap changed on 1 October

The price cap rose to £1,723 on Thursday 1 October 2026 and runs to 31 December. If you have a working smart meter, there was nothing to do. If you have a traditional meter and sent a reading on 30 September or 1 October, you are done.

If you didn’t send one, you have not lost much, and it is still worth sending a reading now. Your supplier will have estimated how much you used before the change; your next actual reading brings the total back into line, and only the split between September and October prices rests on the estimate. On Ofgem’s averages that is worth pennies to a few pounds for most homes (the arithmetic is below).

Next: the 1 January 2027 cap change

The next change is on Friday 1 January 2027. Ofgem’s published schedule says it will announce the cap for 1 January to 31 March 2027 by 25 November 2026. Until it does, whether rates rise or fall in January is not known: the forecasts in the headlines point to a rise, but they are forecasts, and our January 2027 price cap page keeps each one dated and sourced.

The routine on 1 January will be the same as in October: nothing to do with a working smart meter; with a traditional meter on a standard variable tariff, a gas and electricity reading on or around the day, sent through your supplier’s app, website or phone line.

What to do around a cap change (checked 29 September, for the October change)

The cap last changed on Thursday 1 October 2026, and the next change is on Friday 1 January 2027. What to do depends on your meter and your tariff; the details below were checked for the October change.

Working smart meter: nothing. It sends readings to your supplier automatically, Ofgem says. If recent bills say “estimated” rather than “actual”, it may have stopped sending them, so treat it as a traditional meter for now.

Traditional meter, or a smart meter that has stopped sending readings, on a standard variable tariff: read your gas and electricity meters on the day before or the day of the change (for October, Wednesday 30 September or Thursday 1 October) and send the numbers through your supplier’s app, website or phone line. A dated photo of each meter is a useful record if a bill is ever disputed. If you can only manage one, the gas reading mattered more in October: on Ofgem’s averages the gas unit rate rose 8.7 per cent and electricity 0.8 per cent. Missed the day? Send it anyway; suppliers take readings for a few days either side (see below).

Prepayment: no reading needed, because you pay up front (British Gas, EDF). With many non-smart prepayment electricity meters you pay the rate on the day you top up, which is why MoneySavingExpert suggested topping up before 1 October. In October it gained very little. Credit loaded before 1 October carried 5 per cent VAT, and from 1 October it carries none (DESNZ). On Ofgem’s averages, VAT included where it applies, the single-rate prepayment electricity rate moved only from 25.32p to 25.52p a kWh, and in Northern Scotland it fell slightly, from 25.62p to 25.54p. Multi-rate meters such as Economy 7 rose a little more, from 23.70p to 24.14p on average. Don’t put in more than you can spare. Smart prepayment meters and gas prepayment meters charge the rate on the day you use the energy.

Fixed tariff: your unit rates don’t follow the cap, so there is no cap-day reading to send (British Gas, E.ON Next). The VAT cut on household electricity from 1 October covers fixed deals too, and you don’t need to do anything to get it (DESNZ, 26 August 2026).

Northern Ireland: the Ofgem cap covers England, Scotland and Wales only, so none of this applies.

What was shared in late September

On Saturday 26 September 2026 the John O’Groat Journal ran “Caithness residents reminded to submit meter readings ahead of energy price cap change”. The advice in it comes from Advice Direct Scotland, the charity that runs Scotland’s national energy advice service, energyadvice.scot: send readings before midnight on 30 September, or as close to that as you can, take a dated photo of your meter, and check that a smart meter is working. That advice is sound and matches what the suppliers say. Advisers are on freephone 0808 196 8660, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.

The same day The Sun ran a piece on laundry savings headlined “The five simple laundry mistakes YOU’RE making that are costing you £100s – as Brits’ energy bills set to rise in days”. The figure behind it, a 4 per cent rise to £1,723 on 1 October, is Ofgem’s. The version carried by LBC and regional papers on 27 September quotes Uswitch, whose 23 September release says a typical home on a standard tariff would spend £145 on energy in October against £109 in September. Uswitch puts that jump down to higher use as the heating goes on, as well as higher rates; its own notes put about £5 of the £36 rise down to the new rates. The cap’s own rise is £60 a year for a typical household, about £5 a month, according to Ofgem.

What changed on 1 October

Ofgem’s price cap for 1 October to 31 December 2026 is £1,723 a year for a typical household paying by Direct Debit for gas and electricity. That is £60, or 4 per cent, more than the £1,663 cap that applied from July to September. Ofgem announced it on 26 August.

The cap is a limit on unit prices, not on your bill. From October the average Direct Debit rates are 26.32p per kWh for electricity with a 54.83p daily standing charge, and 7.97p per kWh for gas with a 29.68p daily standing charge. Use more than “typical” and you pay more; use less and you pay less.

One thing that confuses comparisons with last year: in July Ofgem lowered its definition of a typical household to 2,500 kWh of electricity and 9,500 kWh of gas a year. The headline number dropped as a result, without anybody’s rates getting cheaper. Always compare unit rates, not headline caps.

Almost all of this rise was gas. Ofgem said gas bills would go up by 8 per cent while electricity bills stayed broadly stable, because the government has taken VAT off household electricity from 1 October 2026 to 31 March 2027; households that don’t use gas saw a rise of less than 1 per cent. Per unit, on Ofgem’s Great Britain averages for Direct Debit, gas went from 7.33p to 7.97p a kWh (up 8.7 per cent) and its standing charge from 29.04p to 29.68p a day. Electricity went from 26.11p to 26.32p a kWh (up 0.8 per cent), while its standing charge fell from 57.19p to 54.83p a day. Rates vary by region: in Northern Scotland, the region that includes Caithness, the average single-rate electricity unit rate fell slightly, from 26.42p to 26.35p, while gas rose from 7.23p to 7.87p. These are the prices you pay. The July to September electricity rates include 5 per cent VAT and the October ones include none (our check: the July rates add up to Ofgem’s £1,663 cap). Ofgem adds that, because of the VAT change, costs “cannot be compared directly to previous periods”.

Do you need to send a reading?

If you have a smart meter that is working and sending readings, no. Your supplier already knows exactly what you used before and after the change. British Gas, EDF, E.ON Next and Octopus all say the same.

If you have a traditional meter, or a smart meter that has stopped communicating, a reading on or around the day the cap changes is worth the two minutes (for October, 30 September or 1 October). Without one, your supplier estimates how much you used before the price changed. If it guesses wrong, some of your cheaper September energy gets billed at October rates.

How much is actually at stake

Be realistic about it. A reading only decides which price your units are charged at. Standing charges are charged by the day, so a reading doesn’t change them. On Ofgem’s average Direct Debit rates, every 100 kWh of September gas billed at October’s price costs about 64p more, and every 100 kWh of electricity about 21p (our arithmetic from Ofgem’s figures). For your bill to be meaningfully wrong the estimate would have to be badly out, so for most homes the difference is pennies to a few pounds. Octopus makes the same point: an estimate for the date will probably be only a few units off, and nobody is badly disadvantaged without a reading.

So do it, because it is free and accurate bills are better than estimated ones. But the headlines that treat it as a deadline with serious money attached are overselling it. It matters far more when a rise is large — and whenever you have been on estimates for months, which is a reason to send a reading regardless of the date.

Missed the date? Send it anyway

You do not need to stand by the meter at midnight. Suppliers accept readings in a window around the change. British Gas accepts them from a few days before to up to 14 days after; E.ON Next says five days either side; Octopus asks for a reading on or close to the date, and EDF accepts one shortly after. For the 1 October change that put British Gas’s last day at 15 October. If you missed every window, send a reading anyway: your next actual reading brings the total back into line, and only the split between the old and new prices rests on an estimate.

MoneySavingExpert suggests taking a photo of your meters, and Advice Direct Scotland advises a dated one. It is your own record of the reading and the date if a bill is ever disputed, and a sensible habit. The suppliers themselves only ask for the numbers.

The “£442 rise” is a forecast, not a fact

Some coverage warns of a £442 rise in bills. That is not Ofgem’s figure and it is not about October. It comes from EDF’s forecast for the January 2027 cap of £2,165, dated 15 September, a rise of about 26 per cent; EDF has lowered its forecast twice since, to £2,076 on 28 September. Our January 2027 price cap page keeps every forecaster’s latest figure, dated.

Forecasts differ. Cornwall Insight’s latest, updated on 30 September, is £1,999 for January, a rise of 16 per cent, or £276, against EDF’s £353. Both are estimates that move with wholesale gas prices. Ofgem announces the real January cap by 25 November 2026.

Should you fix?

We don’t give personal financial advice, and nobody knows what the cap will do. But a simple test is that a fix is only worth considering if it is priced at or below the current cap, and only if you are comfortable that you would lose out should prices fall. MoneySavingExpert’s fixed-deal guide (updated 8 October 2026) goes further and compares a fix with what the cap is expected to do over the next year.

The number of fixed deals that beat the cap changes day by day as suppliers pull and launch tariffs, which is why different articles quote different counts. Check the exit fees before you sign anything.

The help that is actually there this winter

Before worrying about tariffs, check you are getting what you are entitled to — it is usually worth more than any fix. The Warm Home Discount takes £150 off an electricity bill for those who qualify. The Winter Fuel Payment is £100 to £300 depending on your age and household — and HMRC takes it back if your income is over £35,000. Cold Weather Payments are £25 for each seven-day spell of freezing weather between November and March, paid automatically to people on qualifying benefits.

The Priority Services Register is free and gets you extra help from your supplier and network if anyone at home is older, disabled or unwell. And in England, councils now run local help through the Crisis and Resilience Fund, which replaced the Household Support Fund in April. Our energy bill help page has all of it in one place, with the official links.