need help/advise over severn trent bill

Milkshake

hi,
please some help if possible.
a couple of years ago i split from my boyfriend therefor took over the Severn Trent bill in my name,i had a slight over due bill which they informed me that could be taken out of my benefit direct,fine i thought. a year later i get my first letter from ST (literally no other correspondence at all from them) saying i had not been paying my bill for almost a year..omgosh what?!?!

at no point was i told the payments coming out of my benefit's had stopped, only that it had been agreed and started.
so now im in a rears of nearly £700 plus the normal amount i have to pay,therefor im over paying each month on a bill i just cant afford.

i have called them up several times and haggard them to no end in trying to lower my bill from £50 a month to £30 which was OK just, i was told that would again come straight out of my benefit if it was agreed and id know in 4-6 weeks..well of course i heard nothing from them and the £30 was coming out of my bank just fine for another year. but i get my new direct debit payment schedule the other day and its gone up to £36! which i just cant afford at all .

i called and spoke to a guy who told me that no way could i get my bill lowered to an affordable price and in fact it had been lowered and should be £40! i explained my situation and that i had in fact had my bill lowered before when i was struggling to pay, he didn't seem to want to help me at all and just kept repeating it wont be lowered..

so is there anything i can do to get this bill lowered?
help. i just cant afford this new higher bill each month.and im getting no help from ST in lowering it.

Gothicfairy

Firstly direct payments come out of benefits and as such the only thing STW does is apply for them, they do not set the amount or deal with anything else. That is down to the DWP
The amount for direct payments can be as low as £3.00 per fortnight which clearly is not going to cover your bill and the coming amounts so you are always going to be behind whilst paying that way.
You should have had the paper work from the DWP so I would talk to them about that.
You would have been "paid" an amount for your benefit which the would have gone up when the payments to STW were stopped so in a way you might not have had any paperwork but you were aware something had changed IE you were £xx better off.
Also no matter what anyone say's STW nor any other utility company tell the DWP what amount they want, they get what they are given and only if there is no other plan in force etc.

STW can not lower the bill themselves as that is what you owe, go back to the DWP and also go to the trustfund and see if that can help.