EDF and £67 put me in debit on energy account

SusanEThomas

I pay £160 per month for dual fuel to EDF, single person household, from October I noticed a payment from EDF each month of £67 as a refund, this I knew to be the govt help and I , foolishly now it seems, classed it as similar to the winter fuel payment ( I’m a pensioner ) I saw my usual direct debit of £160 going out of my account as usual.  This week, having sent in my meter readings, I find that my fuel account is in debit with EDF and they have refunded me the £67 paid to them each month by the government, meaning that I am not now in credit as I usually am.. to me, this is crazy .. EDF have now changed my direct debit to £233 a month .. if they’d have kept the govt £67 for what it was meant to pay for I could have left my direct debit as it was .. what did they think
i was going to do with it ?? 

Spoonie_Turtle

The point of the government support was so that people needed to spend less on their energy than they otherwise would have, freeing up the total £400 in cash to use on other necessities.

The main two ways of doing that were to reduce the Direct Debit, or to leave the DD the same and refund it to people's banks.

The original idea was that suppliers would have put Direct Debit amounts up by October and to reduce them from that level for 6 months, but the scheme was very rushed and not so simple to implement so some suppliers took to refunding what would have been the reduction instead - and in all the uncertainty and confusion some of those suppliers hadn't increased the Direct Debit amounts either.

It should still appear as a credit on your account, so each time your account should have been overall credited with £160 still.  If you are now in debit that means your £160 Direct Debit was not enough to cover your energy usage (or more likely, not enough to cover the rise in cost of your energy usage).

lemming66

I have found the same thing on my bill, I have received 4 refunds from EDF for the energy bills support scheme so far totalling £266, which appears in the account balance as refunds. The way I understand it is the government gives EDF the money they then pass that on to us as the customer, it does not affect the bill in any way as it should show a credit of £67 and then a refund of £67. I then pay my DD to them as normal.
This is where it gets interesting, In July last year I owed them £36.27, have paid 7 months worth of £300 DD's to them and used £2069.17 worth of energy. So when I work it all out I should owe them £5.44. £2100-£2069.17-£36.27 = -£5.44, Yet on my bill I owe them £271.44 because they have refunded me £266 but not put the £266 on as credit. 
If I had received no money from the scheme I would owe £5.44 but as I have received money I owe them a lot more.
Is that correct?? Any help on the matter would be great.

pochase

lemming66 said:

I have found the same thing on my bill, I have received 4 refunds from EDF for the energy bills support scheme so far totalling £266, which appears in the account balance as refunds. The way I understand it is the government gives EDF the money they then pass that on to us as the customer, it does not affect the bill in any way as it should show a credit of £67 and then a refund of £67. I then pay my DD to them as normal.
This is where it gets interesting, In July last year I owed them £36.27, have paid 7 months worth of £300 DD's to them and used £2069.17 worth of energy. So when I work it all out I should owe them £5.44. £2100-£2069.17-£36.27 = -£5.44, Yet on my bill I owe them £271.44 because they have refunded me £266 but not put the £266 on as credit. 
If I had received no money from the scheme I would owe £5.44 but as I have received money I owe them a lot more.
Is that correct?? Any help on the matter would be great.

The part that it does not affect the bill is wrong. Check your bill on page two, the £66/£67 reduces the amount owed.

lemming66

pochase said:

The part that it does not affect the bill is wrong. Check your bill on page two, the £66/£67 reduces the amount owed.

It doesn't say any of that, It's saying I owe more than I do and they're putting my DD up by £99 a month to cover the outstanding balance which they created and that I'm going to use more energy over the next few months. These are all the relevant screenshots as you can see they have put the refund on the account but not the credit from the government.
I spoke with them earlier and they have had lots and lots of call about it but have so far not managed to get me an answer as I have a 2 rate meter and I have to speak to another department!!!

pochase

The relevant page is where the total is listed. The £266 are deducted before the final amount is listed.

They don't show it or make you aware of it. If you look at the sub total you will see that the money is deducted before the final amount is shown,

lemming66

I don't follow, the total charges for the period in question is £2069.17 that's how much electric and gas I've used since the last bill in July, that plus the amount that I owed which was £36.27 makes a total of £2105.44, in the same period I paid them £2100 which means I owe them £5.44.
They have received £266 from the government over 4 months which they have refunded to me so £266 in and £266 out so they cancel out. but on the bill they have refunded me the £266 but not placed the £266 credit on it so they are saying I owe them the £266 as well as the £5.44. making it that I owe them £271.44. 
No where on the bill is anything about taking it off the final bill or a discount on the rates paid. They were given money to pass on which they have but they've not placed that in the right place on their accounting software for it to register on the bill.

pochase

Take your sub total for gas and add your sub total for electricity.

 Add 5% VAT.

Compare your figure to the total shown on the bill. The total on the bill will be £266 lower,

As I wrote earlier there is no line where they show the £266 being subtracted from the total.

lemming66

Ok, got it, blimey they don't make that easy to work out do they.

Thank you so much for helping with this. it's helped that it's sorted just need to find a way not to use electric for the next year!!!!!

molerat

The only way to see your account current balance is on the app

Robin9

molerat said:

The only way to see your account current balance is on the app

Not quite. The app balance does not include the cost of energy used since the last bill.