Error in how EDF dealt with first crisis payment

I_love_saving_money!

Hi, maybe I’m not understanding this, and I’d really appreciate input from forum members. I have a background in accounting but maybe I’m having a ‘dumb’ moment and misunderstanding this, the customer service helpline convinced me I was wrong but after sitting here thinking about it I’m sure there is an error:

 I think there is an issue with how the government help is being dealt with on my EDF bill:

Opening balance £62.38Cr, £857 paid in direct debits (4x£175 + 1x£157). Refunds of £128.38 (£62.38 Cr + £66 government grant) Usage £856.49. Leaves us £65.49 Dr. 

The customer service helpline explained that I would need to send the £66 refund sitting in my bank account back to my account in order for it to pay off some of my bill.

However, then all that has happened is EDF have effectively sent me a refund from my own balance which I have then sent back?

Surely the government grant of £66 should go onto my account first as a payment in.

So payments in become £923 (Direct debits of £857 + grant £66) then EDF have refunded me the £66 within the £128.38 refund.

So bill should read opening balance £62.38Cr, direct debit payment £857 + government grant £66, minus £128.38 (refund of credit balance £62.38 and refund of £66 grant), usage £856.49 leaving a balance of 51 pence.

The grant in, grant out cancels itself out so effectively ZERO on my account and there is £66 sitting in my bank account which is the government grant, which I can then pay back to my account to reduce my ongoing bill? 

If for arguments sake we take the government grant out of the equation completely as if it never happened my bill should read:

Opening balance £62.38 Cr

Direct Debits paid £857.00

Refund made to me £62.38

Balance on account £857.00

Bill for period.          £856.49

Balance on account £0.51p

Add the grant back in and my balance on account should still be £0.51p but I should also have £66 government grant sitting in my bank account.

Instead I have a balance of negative £65.49 on my EDF account because they have funded my government grant refund from the balance on my account rather than adding the grant to my account in the first place.

Any input will be much appreciated as I’m starting to doubt my own reasoning!

Xbigman

That is a bit confusing. I think EDF are taking full direct debits and then refunding the £66 (I'm with Octopus) in which case they should pay in (credit) £66 from the gov and refund you £66. They haven't paid the £66 in by the looks of it. It is still October so its possible they just haven't done it yet but (from the information supplied) I think you are right.



Darren

Robin9

Your EDF account should show £66 Credit  followed by £66 refund. After you've paid your usual monthly DD  then 4/5 days later there will be a credit in the Bank Account that pays that DD.

That suits me as I can then then do a transfer to my gas supplier.  (In the meantime it's put on one side in a savings account)

I_love_saving_money!

I’ve reread my bill again and the breakdown of units and it would appear EDF have deducted the £66 from the bill at this point before applying the 5% vat but have not annotated the deduction, so if like me you look at the total usage figure rather than the figure before vat and base the calculations on page 1 of the bill only it does appear that the calculation is wrong 🙄 when in actual fact it isn’t as my actual usage should have been £922.49 not £856.49 

I_love_saving_money!

I didn’t notice the electricity charges for the period were actually £66 higher than the figure they quoted on the first page 🙄

I_love_saving_money!

So rather than show the £66 coming in to my account on page 1 of my bill alongside the refund they’ve deducted it from my usage before applying the VAT, so my debit balance is correct after all 🙄 

MWT

I_love_saving_money! said:

So rather than show the £66 coming in to my account on page 1 of my bill alongside the refund they’ve deducted it from my usage before applying the VAT, so my debit balance is correct after all 🙄 

That sounds like it is potentially still wrong, the £66 should not be deducted in full before VAT, if it deducted there the £66 should have been reduced to £62.86...

QrizB

MWT said:

I_love_saving_money! said:

So rather than show the £66 coming in to my account on page 1 of my bill alongside the refund they’ve deducted it from my usage before applying the VAT, so my debit balance is correct after all 🙄 

That sounds like it is potentially still wrong, the £66 should not be deducted in full before VAT, if it deducted there the £66 should have been reduced to £62.86...

It's correct.

They've deducted £66 - so £878.56 becomes £812.56 - but have still calculated the VAT on the unreduced number - 5% of £878.56 is £43.93.

Then they've added £812.56 and £43.93 to give the total charges of £856.49.

MWT

QrizB said:

MWT said:

I_love_saving_money! said:

So rather than show the £66 coming in to my account on page 1 of my bill alongside the refund they’ve deducted it from my usage before applying the VAT, so my debit balance is correct after all 🙄 

That sounds like it is potentially still wrong, the £66 should not be deducted in full before VAT, if it deducted there the £66 should have been reduced to £62.86...

It's correct.

They've deducted £66 - so £878.56 becomes £812.56 - but have still calculated the VAT on the unreduced number - 5% of £878.56 is £43.93.

Then they've added £812.56 and £43.93 to give the total charges of £856.49.

Yes, you are right, but what a convoluted way to present it, very bad form to mix inc. and ex. VAT elements in the calculation like that.

molerat

EDF calculations don't follow any logic.  A -£ is not always a negative.  They did the same with all the adjustments when moving accounts across from Zog, it was just a case of doing your own calculations to see if the bottom line came out correct !