Gas & Electricity unfairness

cxgcxg

Hello,

I write on behalf of my mother who is a pensioner and is using (probably unwisely given their cost) M&S to supply her dual fuel.

Having come to the end of a two year fixed tariff my mother made contact to discuss what to do next and was advised that she owed over £1,000. She cannot pay this and our issue is that she was put onto a £66 monthly direct debit at the outset and was never advised to, or automatically had her payments moved upwards. During this period meter readings have been taken too.

Does my mother have any rights to get this outstanding amount reduced or even waived? She cannot afford to pay it back and certainly not in a short period of time.

I will now help her to find the best new deal as she has been put onto their standard rate!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

[Deleted User]

Presumably she must have opted for a tariff with monthly DDs which are fixed rather than variable, in which case she seems to have been given exactly what she asked for. I don't see any grounds for complaint.

I don't touch direct debits with a barge pole, let alone fixed ones. If you pay by cheque you get to see and check how much you're paying before you let the money go.

macman

If accurate meter readings have been taken then her quarterly statements should show a continually increasing deficit . Why the DD was not increased is the issue here, back billing may or may not apply. To build £500 debt a year is not easy, though her DD is about half the UK dual fuel average.
Start by looking at her statements over the 2 years.
No, the amount will not be waived-if back billing does apply, which is by no means certain, then they can only back bill one year of the two, so she'll have to pay around £500, and can negotiate at least a year to pay this. She won't be able to switch from M&S with a debt that large.

cxgcxg

Thanks - they were variable direct debits. Talking on the phone with M&S my mother was told that they were 'sorry' as she should have had her payments increased.

JJ_Egan

deleted above post answered the question .

cxgcxg

We've now checked bills (involved signing in online for the first time as they were paperless) and can confirm that a big balance had been building. My mother was unaware as she had not understood that she could check online.

With reference to the post above from macman, how do we check if back-billing applies?

spiro

Back billing does not apply but she should raise a complaint on the basis that they have failed to review the DD payments assuming the debt was built up over the 2 year period and not just the last year.

macman

I'm afraid that if she's not looked at her bills in two years then she can hardly escape some blame for this. If she has no online access then why did she not switch to paper billing?
She can hardly have been unaware that prices have risen hugely in two years and so her DD should have increased during that time. However, given the size of the arrears, it would seems that £66pm was inadequate from the start.

littledragon101

We have a similar problem with British Gas - a big deficit built up, despite having signed up to a variable Direct Debit.

The account holders are 93 and 94! Is it deemed "reasonable" to take them off paper bills against their will and expect them to suddenly learn computer skills to keep track?

littledragon101

I've also, whilst looking at my 93/94 year old parents' British Gas gas and electricity, that they have been put on a "time dependent" tarriff without having been told or even asked about it! They have no storage heaters and it's costing them a packet for their daytime leccy. VERY sneaky. This is the BG "Fix and Fall" tarriff. Massive, massive hike in their daytime leccy unit costs.

retired2011

The account holders are 93 and 94! Is it deemed "reasonable" to take them off paper bills against their will and expect them to suddenly learn computer skills to keep track?

I am 68 and I manage quite well with my bills online, I also look after a couple of older than me's bills who don't have computers.

They give me readings every month, or I go and get them, and I run their accounts, checking that their DDs are OK.

Perhaps you could do that.