Alternative Fuel Payment refused

cazza0104

I applied to the AFP fund for the £200 owed to me on the advice of Octopus who claim they haven’t been told to credit me in spite of my postcode being on the list (and others in my hamlet being credited by them).  I got refused today by the BEIS team on the grounds that Octopus need to credit me. So no payment from my fuel supplier and none via the fund. I even uploaded my bill to prove I hadn’t had the credit. So what now? I can’t be the only one!

Apodemus

Something odd about all that.  Is there an issue with the registration of your address?  Was it a self-build property?  It's not uncommon for self-builds to baulk at paying a fee to the Council for proper registration of the address with Royal Mail.  It all works fine (the postie manages to work it out, Amazon asks the neighbours) until someone uses the official address gazetteer for an official purpose - like an ambulance call-out in the middle of the night...  Perhaps Octopus have used an official list of eligible addresses from BEIS?

Spoonie_Turtle

Apodemus said:

Something odd about all that.  Is there an issue with the registration of your address?  Was it a self-build property?  It's not uncommon for self-builds to baulk at paying a fee to the Council for proper registration of the address with Royal Mail.  It all works fine (the postie manages to work it out, Amazon asks the neighbours) until someone uses the official address gazetteer for an official purpose - like an ambulance call-out in the middle of the night...  Perhaps Octopus have used an official list of eligible addresses from BEIS?

The BEIS list was based on MPANs.

The two other possibilities I can think of are that either it's a commercial supply not domestic, or they were with another supplier on the 1st Feb.  The response saying they should already have been paid would seem to rule out the commercial possibility.

Apodemus

Spoonie_Turtle said:

Apodemus said:

Something odd about all that.  Is there an issue with the registration of your address?  Was it a self-build property?  It's not uncommon for self-builds to baulk at paying a fee to the Council for proper registration of the address with Royal Mail.  It all works fine (the postie manages to work it out, Amazon asks the neighbours) until someone uses the official address gazetteer for an official purpose - like an ambulance call-out in the middle of the night...  Perhaps Octopus have used an official list of eligible addresses from BEIS?

The BEIS list was based on MPANs.

The two other possibilities I can think of are that either it's a commercial supply not domestic, or they were with another supplier on the 1st Feb.  The response saying they should already have been paid would seem to rule out the commercial possibility.

Yes, but I still wouldn't rule out an address mis-match between the BEIS list and the Octopus one.  I've seen problems in other spheres, where people appear on one list as the registered "Plot 3/4" or whatever and on the supplier's list as "The Pines".  They should, of course, be able to match up the MPAN number but that might be beyond the wit of the Contact Centre.  Perhaps the advice to the OP should be to find their MPAN number and phone back to Octopus using that as their address details?

ariarnia

if i was you id go back to octopus with the response from beis.

if they still refuse then escalate to the ombudsman. 

1854_1

You're not the only one that has been refused . I received the refusal for our property yesterday too.

It's not rocket science to cross reference a council tax database with a gas networks supply database to establish that a property does not have a  mains gas supply , I would not be surprised if many people, especialy the elderly and vulnerable, will be missing out on this £ 200 payment , hey it's spring now and warm you don't really need it as summer is right around the corner , next ..........

Scot_39

Until the Q bill arrives in your in box or the doormat....

markin

1854_1 said:

You're not the only one that has been refused . I received the refusal for our property yesterday too.

It's not rocket science to cross reference a council tax database with a gas networks supply database to establish that a property does not have a  mains gas supply , I would not be surprised if many people, especialy the elderly and vulnerable, will be missing out on this £ 200 payment , hey it's spring now and warm you don't really need it as summer is right around the corner , next ..........

Electric only homes don't get it automatically unless most homes in the area have oil, lpg, or other fuel.

Spoonie_Turtle

markin said:

1854_1 said:

You're not the only one that has been refused . I received the refusal for our property yesterday too.

It's not rocket science to cross reference a council tax database with a gas networks supply database to establish that a property does not have a  mains gas supply , I would not be surprised if many people, especialy the elderly and vulnerable, will be missing out on this £ 200 payment , hey it's spring now and warm you don't really need it as summer is right around the corner , next ..........

Electric only homes don't get it automatically unless most homes in the area have oil, lpg, or other fuel.

No but I believe they meant cross-referencing databases for the manual application process, which is specifically for people who didn't get it automatically.

ariarnia

Spoonie_Turtle said:

markin said:

1854_1 said:

You're not the only one that has been refused . I received the refusal for our property yesterday too.

It's not rocket science to cross reference a council tax database with a gas networks supply database to establish that a property does not have a  mains gas supply , I would not be surprised if many people, especialy the elderly and vulnerable, will be missing out on this £ 200 payment , hey it's spring now and warm you don't really need it as summer is right around the corner , next ..........

Electric only homes don't get it automatically unless most homes in the area have oil, lpg, or other fuel.

No but I believe they meant cross-referencing databases for the manual application process, which is specifically for people who didn't get it automatically.

i think markin means all electric houses arent eligable for the £200 (its for people that use alternative fuels not people who dont have gas) so doing the check the way suggested wouldn't work as a manual check if the auto payment was refused. 

Spoonie_Turtle

ariarnia said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

markin said:

1854_1 said:

You're not the only one that has been refused . I received the refusal for our property yesterday too.

It's not rocket science to cross reference a council tax database with a gas networks supply database to establish that a property does not have a  mains gas supply , I would not be surprised if many people, especialy the elderly and vulnerable, will be missing out on this £ 200 payment , hey it's spring now and warm you don't really need it as summer is right around the corner , next ..........

Electric only homes don't get it automatically unless most homes in the area have oil, lpg, or other fuel.

No but I believe they meant cross-referencing databases for the manual application process, which is specifically for people who didn't get it automatically.

i think markin means all electric houses arent eligable for the £200 (its for people that use alternative fuels not people who dont have gas) so doing the check the way suggested wouldn't work as a manual check if the auto payment was refused. 

Oh yes, rereading their post I see that now, thanks.  [It was the 'automatically' that threw me.]