A survey of 2,000 UK adults by ComparetheMarket found nearly two-thirds of households suffer an outage or significantly slower internet speeds at least once a month, with more than one in ten (15%) experiencing issues up to four times a month.

The majority – 89% – do not get any money back for being cut off.

Last year, the regulator Ofcom launched the automatic compensation scheme, which means firms must pay out if an outage is not fixed after two full working days.

Customers should receive an initial £8 if the service is not fixed two full working days after the fault is reported, and then £8 for each full day it is still not fixed after that.

Most large broadband suppliers including BT, Sky, TalkTalk, Virgin Media, Zen Internet, Hyperoptic and Vodafone are signed up to the scheme, but not all. EE and Plusnet plan to join this year.

The research found that less than a third (32%) of those who have experienced poor connection speeds raised a formal complaint with their provider – and two fifths (41%) said their complaint was handled badly by their company.

Three quarters of households admit they haven’t considered switching provider in order to access faster and more reliable broadband.

Holly Niblett, head of digital at comparethemarket.com, said: “If you’ve experienced the infuriation of a patchy broadband signal when you need it the most you are not alone, with well over half of the population suffering outages or slower internet speeds at least once a month.

“Poor connectivity is clearly a UK-wide problem which undermines the government’s goal for all households to have access to Superfast Broadband.”