npower.. taking more money off me than i have to live on..can anyone help

bigbrummygirl

the dss pay npower £30 a week for my electric and it leaves me with just £26 a week for me and my son to live on and to pay tv licence and put money in the gas meter.

ive contacted both the dss and npower to say there is no way i can afford so much but dss say they have to pay what is asked by npower and npower insist i used that much a week my last bill was estimated but as my meterts is in the flat downstairs i cant read it.. the people downstairs arent allowed to talk to me.. long story police involved.. npower wont check my meter despite lots of letters and phone calls.. im at my wits end now and will have to give up my internet and tv because £26 a week only just covers food.. if i shop carefully
any advice please i would be very grateful

jobbingmusician

Go and see a benefits adviser!!! (these are usually based at the CAB)

Unless things have changed drastically since I did my benefits training a few years ago, the amount which services can withhold for paying off debts, etc is CAPPED (and at quite a low rate). There is no way that npower should be getting £30 a week from you.

Have a good night's sleep tonight, because I am SURE (from my previous training and from what other people have said on these boards) that this can be sorted out. It is VERY common for utility companies to 'try it on' and demand payments higher than they are allowed to. :mad: (and the DSS collude in this. Let's be generous and assume it's through ignorance. )

I think the CCCS may also be able to help you, if you are paying £30 a week because of past debts - you might like to ask a question on the 'debtfreewannabe' board about this as well.

GOOD LUCK and I look forward to an early posting saying everything has been sorted out! :beer:

kenshaz

n -power have a legal obligation and a contract with you to read your meter,take them to the regulator,ask them to put in written form the fact that they will not read your meter,they are treating you differently and that is unfair

Fran

I agree, go to Citizens Advice Bureau as soon as you can. What income has your son got? If he is a dependant then you should get Child Tax Credits for him if you are a lone parent and if he is a non-dependant he should have some income of his own and be able to contribute towards food & bills.

I wouldn't confuse things by having to tell two seperate people about this though, CAB will be able to deal with all your questions.

Go to CAB with all your bills and paperwork and they can speak to npower or write to them if necessary too on your behalf.

Fran

BBG,

I've just realised you were asking about this in October on THIS THREAD. As you haven't sorted this out, it is imperative you go to CAB who can help you with this as it won't go away unless it's sorted out properly and it sounds like you need some help with it.

Kzlnd

Just wondering what the policy is for taking meter readings..

I'm sick of N Power giving me 'made up' bills. They've taken my meter readings (Gas & Elec) once only and were not the supplier before I moved into the apartment.

Therefore I cannot see how they can estimate my average usage from one reading alone!

I have called them about this and said I would not make payments against continually estimated readings and asked that they start taking them again.. The reply to this was 'The government only requires us to take an actual reading every three years and we do it every six months' - which isn't the case because I've had three estimated bills (quarterly)!

I told them this wasn't good enough and that I wouldn't keep paying, I was then told I should take my own readings and call them.. basically do their job for them! As if!!

The estimated bills are higher than the actual readings I take.

Does anyone know what, if anything I can do about this and regarding the meter reading?

Bri_2205

There is actually no legal obligation for your supplier to read your meter. Obviously it is in their interest to take as many readings as possible, but these are done on a 'best endeavour' basis.

What's the problem with reading your own meter? If you are capable of doing so then you have no leg to stand on by spitting your dummy out & saying, "I'm not paying". It will result in extra charges in the long run & leaves your supply at risk.

chas1937

My Friend is with Powergen and been with them since nov 2004 and although they have read meters she still just gets estimates all the time.She then phones them and in couple of days she gets revised bill which can be lot smaller than their estimates

black-saturn

Its always advisable to ring every time and give them a proper meter reading. Then you wont get overcharged for this.

Would agree with the idea of going to the Citizens Advice Bureau. It's impossible to live on that amount.

Also your incomings look very low. You should be getting more than £56 per week so I think there is a benefit somewhere you havn't applied for of which you are entitled to.

Make an appointment at the DSS and they should be able to sort it out for you. You might end up with a nice back payment which would ease the financial strain a bit.

Let us know how you get on.

gotnobread

Hi Bigbrummygirl,

The scheme you're on that takes money out of your benefits is called Fuel Direct. Fuel Direct is designed to pay for:

Any debt you owe for leccy you've already used;
Money to go towards the leccy you're using now.

Jobbingmusician is right, there is a limit as to how much can be put towards any debt you owe, which is £2.75 per week.
This means n-Power are saying you are using £27.25 worth of leccy now, which is very unlikely if you live in a flat, you just have the usual electrical appliances and you're not using them 24hrs every day.

There is only one way to prove how much leccy you have or haven't used, and that's to look at the meter. n-Power cannot dictate anything to you based on estimates - how do they know you have used any leccy at all without reading the meter? Incidentally, there is a regulatory requirement on all power companies to read at least 99% of meters at least once every two years - if they fail to do so, they risk losing their licence to supply electricity. They can, however, estimate every other reading in between. If your meter has not been read for two years, n-Power should apply for a Magistrates warrant to forcibly enter your neighbours flat under the Rights of Entry (Gas and Electricity Boards) Act.

n-Power are estimating your leccy usage to be over £1,400 per year, which is several times the amount I would expect to see a typical family house use (I used to work for an energy company). Unless you have special equipment (e.g. medical equipment such as a dialysis machine), I do not believe that this is correct and do not think you should be paying anything like the amount that you are - not even close.

If there is a problem in getting meter readings, then n-Power can arrange to have the meter moved into your flat (although they'd need to get to it once in order to do the job). Normally this is something you would be charged for but in the circumstances you could ask for this to be done free of charge - the downside is they would do it as cheaply as possible ("on a least cost option"), which means it might end up in your living room, or halfway up the kitchen wall.

Please take the advice already given and get in touch with your Citizens Advice Bureau straightaway - you do not need to carry on having so much money taken off of you and it might even turn out that n-Power owe YOU money. Let us know how you get on.

Cheers,
Gotnobread.

Blackjack_Davy

I'm with nPower too and they do take £30 or so a month via direct debit. Whenever I get a statement I take a meter reading and phone them up they've been very quick to get through to customer service and give a refund if I've overpaid (which usually have) and give me a refund direct to my bank account, last time for over £60, but thats not a lot of help if you can't access your meter. My advice would be to change your supplier to one that sends you a quarterly bill to be paid by cheque etc.