£400 & Monthly Direct Debit Payments

RHP485

I am with British Gas for my electricity paying by monthly direct debit. My monthly payment is based on my annual consumption multiplied by my tariff divided by 12.
My monthly payment review is due next month and British Gas have refused to take the £400 payable into account when deciding if my payments should be increased. This is even though the government have stated that I will receive the £400.
This means that I could pay a large amount more each month before the grant is paid.
I have raised a complaint about this but I thought members should know about this in case they get the same response from their supplier! 

GingerTim

I would be amazed if any energy supplier starts taking the £400 credit, which will almost certainly paid in 6 x £66 instalments, into account until it's actually credited.

Ultrasonic

RHP485 said:

I am with British Gas for my electricity paying by monthly direct debit. My monthly payment is based on my annual consumption multiplied by my tariff divided by 12.
My monthly payment review is due next month and British Gas have refused to take the £400 payable into account when deciding if my payments should be increased. This is even though the government have stated that I will receive the £400.
This means that I could pay a large amount more each month before the grant is paid.
I have raised a complaint about this but I thought members should know about this in case they get the same response from their supplier! 

Are you on a fixed tariff? If not the estimate probably isn't factoring in the big October price increase.

RHP485

Hi Ultrasonic
I am on a fixed tariff until Jan 2024. I was on the cap, as my previous supplier went out of business. I decided to take a chance with the fixed tariff.

Hi Gingertim

I haven't seen anything to suggest the £400 will be paid in 6 monthly payments. However if the £400 as a whole was taken into account when working out my monthly payments next month for the next 6 months I would be paying less than I am now. 

GingerTim

Hi @RHP485 - it's the very strong implication from the wording on gov.uk that the credits will be in monthly instalments. It also makes sense as it prevents people withdrawing large credits.

But the point remains - even if it was to be paid as a £400 lump, British Gas still aren't going to take it into account at next month's direct debit review because no credit has been applied to your account, and won't be until October.

Ultrasonic

RHP485 said:

I haven't seen anything to suggest the £400 will be paid in 6 monthly payments. 

Bellow is a link to the official info. but the the crucial point re. the £400 states that, "Energy suppliers will deliver this support to households with a domestic electricity meter over six months from October." So whether one or more payments over this period remains unclear but monthly payments looks like a distinct, and reasonable, possibility to me.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cost-of-living-support/cost-of-living-support-factsheet-26-may-2022

RHP485

Well hopefully Gingertim if your assumption is correct then I will need to contact British Gas in October to reduce my payments then. Or I could be paying up to double the amount now from next month plus they will give me 6 months of credits to total £400.
I will probably have a credit balance of £200+ by the time my payment review takes place next Jan or Feb.
Also my wife and I are pensioners and we are due to receive £300 + £200 winter fuel payments so we also need to decide wether we pay this amount to the fuel companies when we get it them. 

Mstty

We have discussed, as a household, switching to variable direct debit with Eon Next from October. But won't do that until the way the £400 is confirmed.

We know our usage and track it so nothing will be a surprise so this is safe for us to do and plan for. But it may not be the answer for everyone.

If prices remain high into the Autumn of 2023 I suspect there will be a similar help package as the one received this year so based on this variable DD may be our future.

Ultrasonic

My hunch would be any universal government support next winter would be less generous as there would have been far more time for people to have planned for it rather than it being a surprise.

For example summer holidays this year likely couldn't be cancelled to save money but holidays next year could not be booked in the first place.

Mstty

Ultrasonic said:

My hunch would be any universal government support next winter would be less generous as there would have been far more time for people to have planned for it rather than it being a surprise.

For example summer holidays this year likely couldn't be cancelled to save money but holidays next year could not be booked in the first place.

Those on 6 monthly billing may not even know how expensive energy is til after this winter when their bills arrive in spring.

Lot of people just closing their eyes hoping it will all go away.

Sea_Shell

Ultrasonic said:

My hunch would be any universal government support next winter would be less generous as there would have been far more time for people to have planned for it rather than it being a surprise.

For example summer holidays this year likely couldn't be cancelled to save money but holidays next year could not be booked in the first place.

Let's hope that actually happens, and people take responsibility, rather than carry on as normal, waiting for more handouts!!

But either way you have the economic fallout of either the collapse of the travel industry, or increased spending by government for the "squeezed spenders" as they've been coined.

It's not looking good, whichever way you slice and dice it ☹️