E.On criticised for seeking backdated bill payments from vulnerable PPM customers

Premier_2

Major energy supplier E.On has been criticised for reportedly seeking backdated bill payments from homeowners in Nottingham, reports thisisnottingham.co.uk.

Prepayment tariffs on many meters in the region have remained mistakenly unchanged for several years and the energy supplier is reportedly defying Ofgem guidelines by pursuing unpaid bills.

...

According to the paper, the energy supplier said that it approached billing matters on a case-by-case basis and that it always ensured that it set out to "protect vulnerable people". It added that the situation was always clearly explained to homeowners who were in debt.

http://www.energyhelpline.com/news/article.aspx?aaid=19004058&y=2009&m=2&w=1&pid=1

It appears many if not all of the customers only have the back billing demand waived/credited/reduced once their MP became involved in the dispute

1carminestocky

Oooh, posting in office time so the replies should be interesting....

Premier_2

The Gas and Electricity Licence Condition 28 relating to Prepayment Meters states that:

"The meter should be recalibrated according to any price change within a reasonable timeframe."

According to consumer focus, suppliers policies vary wrt debts accrued on PPMs due to their failure to set & maintain a correct tariff on the meter.

BG, SSE & EDF all state they would not pursue a debt arisen by their failure to provide their customer with a correctly calibrated meter. nPower would restrict such debts to a maximum of £70.

E.on policy is reportedly:

"The Company has promised to recalibrate all meters within three months of a price change. Recovery charges will be a low rate, agreed with the consumer."

Premier_2

Here is the relevent paper from Ofgem.

http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Sustainability/SocAction/Publications/Documents1/16521-218_06.pdf

In it, E.on (formally Powergen) policy is being stated as that no debts will accrue after 31 March 2007, but they will pursue debts accrued before that time.

That is now contrary (note the paper is dated 19-Dec-2006) to the Ofgem recomendation in that same paper which states:

4. Writing off old debt (back billing rules)
Where debts have been accruing for over 12 months they can amount to a
considerable sum. Given the particular problems caused by delayed recalibration, it is our view that suppliers should look carefully at any cases where debt has been accruing for over 12 months. Suppliers should already be complying with the spirit of the back billing rules and writing off all debts which have been accruing for more than 2 years (or 12 months from July 2007).

KimYeovil

(It seems to be taking the triumvirate a long time to comment. Must be tricky trying to work out the wording to spin this one.)

E.ON_Company_Representative

Hi Guys,

It’s always you three isn’t it?

As per your earlier posts this is our company policy for recalibration debt on prepayment meters.

Each case is dealt with individually.

If any customers with E.ON have concerns or questions around this issue please contact me and I will be happy to look into this for you.

You haven’t really asked us any questions here and I’m not going to either criticise or to justify the policy. If you’ve got any specific questions though, let me know.

Brian