EEBS and variable direct debit different advice to consumers v suppliers?

Mee

Please can some one help me understand my situation and whether the guidance to energy suppliers on VDD s.5.30/5.31 has been overlooked.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1105770/energy-bills-support-scheme-guidance-electricity-suppliers.pdf

My VDD payment was taken (16 days after) when it was less than the already credited EEBS £66 payment.

My energy company has stated I am being treated as a standard credit payee as per gov.uk guidelines. Which on the face of it seems correct though I don't understand the why of this distinction between DD and VDD.

However, I am now confused by my web chat and DMs with them. When challenged they offered to refund the £66 instead of the lesser DD payment (?), then said if I wanted my DD refunded instead they would need to bill me up to today(?) when they had already billed me for Jul-Oct.Then they claimed they would not refund and I had 'benefitted' from £66?!! At which point I wanted to cry with rage.

Since then I've found the following guidelines to suppliers (d.Sept 2022) which suggests to me the supplier could have deducted the EEBS from my DD amount if they were so inclined?  (see images).

pochase

This does not sound like a monthly variable direct debit? Is that quarterly billing?

Who is the supplier?

[Deleted User]

Others seem to have noticed the same, that VDD is being treated differently to FDD for the £400

ariarnia

is there a chance (at all) that your bill was actually 66+your payment? and they had already deducted the 66 from the bill before you saw the total? 

some suppliers are having a really hard time showing the 66 payment on their system as theres not a field for it so they've crammed it in to the strangest places that make the bills look incorrect at first glance. 

Mee

Type your comment

ariarnia said:

is there a chance (at all) that your bill was actually 66+your payment? and they had already deducted the 66 from the bill before you saw the total? 

some suppliers are having a really hard time showing the 66 payment on their system as theres not a field for it so they've crammed it in to the strangest places that make the bills look incorrect at first glance.

Thank you, but no. I know how much the bill thus DD was and the EEBS was clearly added prior to the billing over two weeks before and then they decided to deduct my VDD.

pochase said:

This does not sound like a monthly variable direct debit? Is that quarterly billing?

Thank you.

Yes by VDD

Jyana

I agree with pochase, you don't have a variable DD account but a standard credit one. DD accounts, both fixed and variable, pay monthly for their energy usage.

Your best bet is seeing if you can move to variable monthly payment, or holding on in there and just letting the monthly amounts stack up until the next bill and then they will be deducted from that instead. (If it's a 3 monthly one, with the last one being Oct, then having £99 written off on a post Xmas bill could be nicely timed).

t0rt0ise

With variable direct debit I think the problem is that the computer is set to trigger the DD before the £66 is added to the account so the sum actually taken 14 or whatever days later won't be reduced. This happened to me with octopus and my account is now £66 in credit. That's okay because the amount just taken was actually for energy used in September. 

Mee

Jyana said:

I agree with pochase, you don't have a variable DD account but a standard credit one. DD accounts, both fixed and variable, pay monthly for their energy usage.

Your best bet is seeing if you can move to variable monthly payment, or holding on in there and just letting the monthly amounts stack up until the next bill and then they will be deducted from that instead. (If it's a 3 monthly one, with the last one being Oct, then having £99 written off on a post Xmas bill could be nicely timed).

I guess if my bank account says it is direct debit and my energy account says variable direct debit I assume it is a variable direct debit.
Whilst I am happy for the extra help it does not seem right for the energy company to profit from both.

Mee

pochase said:

This does not sound like a monthly variable direct debit? Is that quarterly billing?

Who is the supplier?

O.K. but the energy supplier guidelines s5.30 do not say it has to be 'monthly' just 'regularly' by variable direct debit.

MWT

What were the actual dates of the bill your DD covered?

Is it possible that the bill was for the quarter prior to 1st October?

If so then the £66 credit will be going against the next quarters billing and so it would have been correct to taker the VDD in full to cover the previous quarter's bill, and to leave the £66 in full on your account so it would reduce the next quarters VDD.

Mee

MWT said:

What were the actual dates of the bill your DD covered?

Is it possible that the bill was for the quarter prior to 1st October?

If so then the £66 credit will be going against the next quarters billing and so it would have been correct to taker the VDD in full to cover the previous quarter's bill, and to leave the £66 in full on your account so it would reduce the next quarters VDD.

Hi

Bill covers 1/7/22- 1/10/22.

EESB 1/10 & VDD 16/10

My reading of the guidelines to energy suppliers s5.30&s5.31 is that they could have treated it differently.