MSE News: Energy firms ordered to do more to help those in debt 16 October 2017 at 5:10PM in Energy 9 replies 1.6K views

MSE_Andrew

Energy regulator Ofgem has called on suppliers to do more to help those who fall behind on payments...

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'Energy firms ordered to do more to help those in debt'

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joe134

MSE_Andrew wrote: »

Energy regulator Ofgem has called on suppliers to do more to help those who fall behind on payments...

Read the full story:
'Energy firms ordered to do more to help those in debt'

Click reply below to discuss. If you haven’t already, join the forum to reply.

That will mean higher prices for those that don,t.

Ectophile

joe134 wrote: »

That will mean higher prices for those that don,t.

In what way?

How can spotting problem debts early and putting measures into place to repay them drive up prices for anyone else?

matelodave

Ectophile wrote: »

In what way?

How can spotting problem debts early and putting measures into place to repay them drive up prices for anyone else?

As energy firms will not be allowed to disconnect them, who pays for their energy if they wont and they are still allowed to keep using it which just increases the debt.

Pre-pay or smart meters have to be the answer - once a debt is accrued then the smart meter gets switched to pre-pay until the debt is paid off.

welshmoneylover

People get into debt as they don't prioritise essentials bills and would rather spend their income on things they can't afford like Sky, etc

fatbelly

Ofgem said five suppliers - Ecotricity, First Utility, iSupplyEnergy, Npower and Utility Warehouse - let customers build up significantly more debt before putting them on a repayment plan, compared to the rest of the market.

For the first three, this is probably just incompetence due to underfunding of customer service.

Npower should not be in this list -they have a charitable trust

http://www.npowerenergyfund.com/

so they should really take a look at themselves.

As for UW this is no surprise and I hope they get fined

fatbelly

welshmoneylover wrote: »

People get into debt as they don't prioritise essentials bills and would rather spend their income on things they can't afford like Sky, etc

People get into debt because their income is too low. Sky etc has long gone before there is no money even for electricity.

joe134

Ectophile wrote: »

In what way?

How can spotting problem debts early and putting measures into place to repay them drive up prices for anyone else?

It,s the people in debt, that want to spot it early, and deal with it, not just put the letters in thr drawer!
Seen it all too often.
There are genuine cases, but most are just !!!!less.

brewerdave

fatbelly wrote: »

People get into debt because their income is too low. Sky etc has long gone before there is no money even for electricity.

.....not so; I know of a case recently, of a person being taken to Court for non payment of Council tax, who openly boasted of upgrading to Sky Q:mad::mad:

Caddyman

In the last 12 months, I've first hand witnessed two households in my own street where the energy company has forced entry with a warrant to change meters to pre-payment meters because the householders clearly were unable or unwilling to pay their energy bills. Therefore some energy companies are taking suitable action to protect themselves and other customers from having to pay for those who are seemingly unable or unwilling to prioritise their finances.