Did your energy firm pocket the £50 'green tax' rebate?

Cardew

There was a thread about this subject with Scottish Power; but this article covers four of the Big Six companies.

Essentially the Government announced that there would be a reduction of £54 (for the average customer) made up of a £12 and £42 tranche.

The four foreign owned companies have decided to only rebate customers on a fixed tariff the £12 and pocket the £42 themselves.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/consumertips/household-bills/10564117/Did-your-energy-firm-pocket-the-50-green-tax-rebate.html


I submitted a formal complaint to my company and after a series of correspondence, was advised by the company to take the matter up with the Energy Ombudsman.(EO)

After considering my complaint, the EO have, in their usual fashion, decided that they can 'slope shoulders' on the grounds they have no jurisdiction because mine is an 'individual' complaint between myself and my energy company. The fact that it affects millions of customers on fixed tariffs seems of little concern.

It seems unbelievable that the government can announce rebates 'to reduce customer's energy bills', the energy companies collect that rebate for every customer, and decide themselves they have the discretion not to pass that rebate to customers, but pocket it themselves.

At least the much maligned British Gas have done the decent thing and passed all of the rebate to all customers - including those of fixed tariffs.

I am now in the process of submitting a complaint against the EO.

I would urge people to complain to the Ombudsman Services(Energy) and their MP.

The Ombudsman Services(Energy) can be contacted on:

Tel: 0330 440 1624 or 01925 530 263

Email: [EMAIL="enquiries@os-energy.org"]enquiries@os-energy.org[/EMAIL]

Website: www.os-energy.org

In writing: Ombudsman services: Energy PO Box 966, Warrington WA4 9DF

A telephone call/email will start the complaint process - only takes a few minutes.

Bark01

The £12 is a direct rebate and all electricity customers will receive this.

The reduced ECO costs are not a rebate but a reduction in costs and therefore do not need to passed on to customers in the same way a reduction in any other costs would not get passed onto fixed customers. If you take out a fixed product it’s a hedge against cost increasing, if costs decrease then you are out of luck.

Centrica can easily hand back this money as they are consistently one of the most expensive suppliers.

jayson043

Bark01 wrote: »

The £12 is a direct rebate and all electricity customers will receive this.

The reduced ECO costs are not a rebate but a reduction in costs and therefore do not need to passed on to customers in the same way a reduction in any other costs would not get passed onto fixed customers. If you take out a fixed product it’s a hedge against cost increasing, if costs decrease then you are out of luck.

Centrica can easily hand back this money as they are consistently one of the most expensive suppliers.

lol, I don't know why you believe it should be like that. The energy companies say they need to increase bills due to ECO costs, the goverment agreed to a decrease in costs, and the energy companies don't pass on these cost reductions . BG was the only supplier to do this.

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

Bark01 wrote: »

The £12 is a direct rebate and all electricity customers will receive this.

The reduced ECO costs are not a rebate but a reduction in costs and therefore do not need to passed on to customers in the same way a reduction in any other costs would not get passed onto fixed customers. If you take out a fixed product it’s a hedge against cost increasing, if costs decrease then you are out of luck.

Centrica can easily hand back this money as they are consistently one of the most expensive suppliers.

What a strange and factually dubious attack on one of the only two companies to behave as the policy was intended.

I_luv_cats

(£12 aside) I will be paying EBICO £22.88 less over the year.

(but it's still like being pick-pocketed by energy co's and then handed some money back)

Mee

Did Ebico/SSE alert customers to when they were going to reduce the tariff? It seems a bit arbitrary. As my usage is 31% down on last year I don't see much benefit in the so called 'green tax' rebate.

Bark01

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays wrote: »

What a strange and factually dubious attack on one of the only two companies to behave as the policy was intended.

Okay then explain to me how E.on and Edf have not handed out a reduction but still rank cheaper than the rest of the big six. My point is the others can afford to hand it back as they put up prices too high over winter pocketed the money then reduced their prices in time for summer to bring them back in line.

footyguy

Mee wrote: »

Did Ebico/SSE alert customers to when they were going to reduce the tariff? ...

I don't think there is any obligation on suppliers to contact customers directly in advance of changes, unless such changes have an adverse affect on the customer.

Ebico made a press release on 9th January 2014, saying prices would fall by an average of 3.5% from 24 March 2014
https://www.ebico.org.uk/news/press-releases

HTH