Everyone paying for utilities on direct debit should check if they have overpaid now!

Alnat1

OP still hasn't confirmed that OVO are managing to get readings from the meters. It could be they are estimating use and the bills aren't accurate.

lisyloo

[Deleted User] said:

lisyloo said:

Jackalynann said:

Nobody is getting the point there was a huge overestimation. Or that I know what a smart meter does but a 90 year old may not understand it.  Mum will be in credit again this month because they could not reduce the direct debit. This again will build up. 

I do get your point and agree.
I believe they overestimate (I have a degree in mathematics and the calculations aren't rocket science).
They may be factoring in some things we don't know about (like future price increases) but it does seem to be working out rather in their favour IME.

Just ask them to change to variable (if they offer that option).
But be aware if she's on a low or fixed income then her bills will be a lot higher in winter.
Hopefully she gets council tax help, £400 help, winter fuel allowance and perhaps warm front grant (although criteria have changed for that).

To help her you could check she's getting everything she's entitled to.
I'm doing that for my Dad.
Don't bother arguing on here. The other option is a valid option for some people so there's no point.
Just accept there are options that suit different people.

It tends to work “in their favour”, by which you mean more credit than strictly necessary, for the reasons that Dolor indicated.

We’ve all seen the threads on here - “I’ve been paying my bill each month but now they’ve sent me a huge extra one”.

VDD could be the right option here, if the OP is sure about being able to manage the cash flow (and the supplier offers it).

Your point about being sure to claim all possible support is spot on.

I agree the suppliers are between a rock and a hard place as they are damned if they do (take too much) or damned if they don’t (take enough).

hence my advice, is

1) quit arguing about it. Accept It suits some and not others. We don’t get to choose how businesses are run. It’s a waste of life.
2) get a method that suits 
3) check all help has been applied for and is actually being received e.g. DWP payments have arrived at bank. 

I recently applied for attendance allowance for my dad £92 per week plus £150 cost of living help. That kind of money really helps.

Merlin139

From what I have seen here the DD is £159 a month which comes to £1908 for a year.

Nowhere have you stated what your Mothers Annual usage is in Gas and Electricity. Hard to tell if the figures will cover all of the energy used in a year. 

Is the heating on in her house yet? Its still mild but when it turns cold I would suspect that the heating will be on for most of the day and much more energy will be used. 

QrizB

Alnat1 said:

OP still hasn't confirmed that OVO are managing to get readings from the meters. It could be they are estimating use and the bills aren't accurate.

... and we don't know how OP is coming up with their own calculations for their mum's energy use either. They could both be wrong.

[Deleted User]

There is also a lack of consumer appreciation (some might say denial) about the increases in the cost of energy over the past 13 months.

lisyloo

Dolor said:

There is also a lack of consumer appreciation (some might say denial) about the increases in the cost of energy over the past 13 months.

If you are doing calculations (correctly i.e. with actual usage and including VAT etc.) at todays prices then how can you be underplaying it ?

molerat

I am £300 in credit on my gas account.  By February I will be in debit. Sounds like OP's mother's account is in a healthy situation.

MattMattMattUK

[Deleted User] said:

There is also a lack of consumer appreciation (some might say denial) about the increases in the cost of energy over the past 13 months.

I agree about the denial, the amount of people on here who say something along the lines of "I have always paid £50 a month and now they want £150, this must be fraud/criminal/wrong/unfair/etc." shows a fairly poor understanding, bordering on deliberate ignorance. With how news, social media and even general conversation has been saturated with the energy price rises it really surprises me how anyone cannot see this coming.

QrizB

lisyloo said:

Dolor said:

There is also a lack of consumer appreciation (some might say denial) about the increases in the cost of energy over the past 13 months.

If you are doing calculations (correctly i.e. with actual usage and including VAT etc.) at todays prices then how can you be underplaying it ?

That's a big "if", though. OP has yet to give any details of mum's usage of electricity and/or gas, and what tariff they're on.

maisie_cat

I manage my 86yo FIL's SSE account and it's easy to reduce the DD, he is £800 in credit gas & electric, for some reason they increased it quite recently but I simply reduced it.
His wife has just left hospital on end of life care and the house is like a sauna so he needs a decent sized credit to cover the winter period. A £300 credit is a good sized credit for winter but not huge.
Before we started to input regular readings the account was all over the place, but it's settled now the algorithm has some actual data to work with.