SSE refusing fuel direct breaching their licence

Lightspeeders

Hi,

I am really struggling on benefits at the moment - and I needed to set up fuel direct - SSE said today they no longer offer it so have to do direct debit - I said I'm not sure that's legal so ill call you back - apparently it isn't legal - a letter was sent from the secutary of state for work and pensions to the boss of ofgem about it saying and I quote...

"Customers should be confident that their energy supplier will support them in any way possible should they have energy arrears or difficulty to pay. If suppliers are not doing so, this appears to be a direct contravention of a supplier’s Supply Licence Conditions (278a) that require suppliers to support customers in payment difficulty."

Problem is - what do i say to them when I ring back tomorrow - and now I am unable to pay anything because they want to apparently break the law - so I am stuck with a debt and no way to pay without fuel direct.

Thank you for any help

Darren

EssexHebridean

How do you currently pay for your energy, could I ask?

Lightspeeders

Fuel direct for electric and was trying to do the gas as that debt built up the past few months - i am trying to sort the gas but then this happened.

[Deleted User]

Lightspeeders said:

Hi,

I am really struggling on benefits at the moment - and I needed to set up fuel direct - SSE said today they no longer offer it so have to do direct debit - I said I'm not sure that's legal so ill call you back - apparently it isn't legal - a letter was sent from the secutary of state for work and pensions to the boss of ofgem about it saying and I quote...

"Customers should be confident that their energy supplier will support them in any way possible should they have energy arrears or difficulty to pay. If suppliers are not doing so, this appears to be a direct contravention of a supplier’s Supply Licence Conditions (278a) that require suppliers to support customers in payment difficulty."

Problem is - what do i say to them when I ring back tomorrow - and now I am unable to pay anything because they want to apparently break the law - so I am stuck with a debt and no way to pay without fuel direct.

Thank you for any help

Darren

I can understand your concern but the quote that you have posted doesn’t confirm any illegality as it uses the words ‘this appears to be’ which suggests to me that it is open to legal interpretation. Breaching a Supply Licence is not an illegal act: breaches of Licence Conditions are dealt with a warning or a fine (more often a voluntary contribution in lieu of a fine) or a revocation of the Supply Licence. Illegal acts normally end up in Court.

At the moment, the Government is in the game of wanting to be seen as being on the consumers’ side. For example, stopping the fitting of pre-payment meters when it knows that consumer energy debt will just go on increasing. 

If it was serious about dealing with the debt problem, the Government would be engaging with energy suppliers about how a social tariff would work and who would pay for it. To put it bluntly, energy suppliers are businesses that need to make an operating profit to survive: they are not charities or an arm of social services.

ariarnia

if you refuse to pay anything then that can go badly for you.

as far as i no legally all they have to offer is direct debit. prepayment. and cash (at the bank or post office). 

so what you really need to do is make a complaint that there not following there own policy if they say you can only pay by dd.

if i was you i would email them (so its in writing) and say you would like to pay by fuel direct. 

https://sse.co.uk/help/bills-and-paying/how-to-pay-your-energy-bill



send them this page and copy and paste the fuel direct bit into your email. 

if they say no then you can complain that there not supporting you as a customer struggling to pay and ask them what support they will offer you. 

in 8 weeks you can then take it to the ombudsman (but the ombudsman wont force them to offer you a payment method they have stopped offering for everyone. they might require them to set up a payment plan or something). 

Lightspeeders

if you refuse to pay anything then that can go badly for you.

so what you really need to do is make a complaint that there not following there own policy if they say you can only pay by dd.

if i was you I would email them (so its in writing) and say you would like to pay by fuel direct. 

That's just it - I am trying to pay them something but they are not making it easy.

I will make a complaint once I tell them this on the phone / email

Mainly DWP was about to set it up - and they asked me to ask SSE for their creditor details and my payment information but SSE are refusing to give me the details I need.

It is all a bit of a mess at the moment.

I do know how much DWP would be paying them each month - do you think its worth just paying that myself through my online account while I am getting this resolved?

Darren

Lightspeeders

I found this as an act of law - so now I really do not know why they are saying this - esp. part iv


ELECTRICITY ACT 1989
Standard conditions of electricity supply licence

Customers in payment difficulty

27.8A For the purposes of ascertaining a Domestic Customer’s ability to pay as set out in paragraph 27.8, the licensee must give due consideration to: 

(c) Understanding individual customers’ ability to pay, which includes:

(i) Providing clear guidance and training for staff on how to elicit information on ability to pay and monitoring the effectiveness of this;

(ii) Providing appropriate channels for customers to quickly and easily raise concerns and facilitating conversations around customers’ ability to pay when requested;

(iii) Making full use of all available information; and Note: Consolidated conditions are not formal Public Register documents and should not be relied on. Electricity suppliers Licence: Standard Conditions - Consolidated to 18 July 2022 220

(iv) Proactively exploring payment amounts and payment methods which are appropriate to the individual circumstances of each customer; this includes debt repayment schemes such as those by which payments may be deducted at source from a social security benefit received by that customer.

[Deleted User]

The first paragraph of this link sets out the current position on Fuel Direct:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/how-to-request-deductions-from-benefit-a-guide-for-creditors/third-party-deductions-from-benefits-a-guide-for-fuel-suppliers

Lightspeeders

Yeah i saw that one as well - looks like SSE will be getting a few documents attached to the email i send them

EssexHebridean

Not on the topic in hand OP, but remember that the Debt Free Wannabe board here is available for non-judgemental help and support. Please think about starting a thread over there - put together your SOA (Statement of Affairs) using the calculator linked in my signature, post that into your thread (“format for MSE” then copy and paste) and we can take a look and see if we can spot any tweaks to your budget that may help you. 

ariarnia

Lightspeeders said:

Mainly DWP was about to set it up - and they asked me to ask SSE for their creditor details and my payment information but SSE are refusing to give me the details I need.

It is all a bit of a mess at the moment.

I do know how much DWP would be paying them each month - do you think its worth just paying that myself through my online account while I am getting this resolved?

Darren

im not an expert on debt but i would think making a payment if you can afford it of the amount you can afford would be good. it shows your not 'refusing' or being difficult and you start to pay down your debt that bit sooner so it will be cleared that bit faster. 

it could be the customer service agent just doesn't know the rules or how it works (i dont think its a common thing) so sending them dolor's link might help? 

the link i gave above to the 'how to pay' page had there bank details for customer bank transfers. not sure if that's what dwp need?