not received all the gov energy payments

Brie

Helping a friend......

She has a shockingly low energy use as confirmed by her smart meter.  Total actual electricity use in 1 year has been charged at just over £67. (yes i;ve checked the numbers)

Standing charge on the other hand has been charged at about £170.  

Her bill for the year from BG shows only 1 support payment of £67.  Would I be right in thinking that no payments were provided until she hit the £67 mark in March?  And so has missed out on the others?  That nothing in the support scheme pays towards the standing charge???

Seems a very enviable situation to be in but she hasn't paid anything to BG all year, they've not chased her for anything but she lives a borderline existence so doesn't have the 
£170 to clear the balance.  obviously this is something that we'll need to discuss with BG but if she'd had the other payments there'd be nothing for her to pay at this point.

[Deleted User]

Wrong. She was entitled to £400. Suppliers dealt with EBSS in different ways. Some reduced the monthly DD by £67 but added the full amount to the energy account. Other suppliers refunded the £67 to the customer's Bank account.

TheElectricCow

Not to doubt you or your friend, but it may be worth having a very thorough look through any bills, documentation, and bank statements relating to this period in case anything has been misunderstood or missed.

BG should have either credited the full amount to her account and/or it would have been refunded to her bank. It would be very unlikely that she only received one payment, and if that was the case it would be an error she’d need to contact BG about rather than any question over her entitlement to the money.

Does the apparent usage of just £67 match up with her lifestyle? It is worth noting that at today’s prices even running an average fridge freezer for the year is likely to consume more energy than that. Could it be possible she’s actually used £467 worth of electric, and this £67 bill is the reminder after the support payments were deducted?

Brie

TheElectricCow said:

Not to doubt you or your friend, but it may be worth having a very thorough look through any bills, documentation, and bank statements relating to this period in case anything has been misunderstood or missed.

BG should have either credited the full amount to her account and/or it would have been refunded to her bank. It would be very unlikely that she only received one payment, and if that was the case it would be an error she’d need to contact BG about rather than any question over her entitlement to the money.

Does the apparent usage of just £67 match up with her lifestyle? It is worth noting that at today’s prices even running an average fridge freezer for the year is likely to consume more energy than that. Could it be possible she’s actually used £467 worth of electric, and this £67 bill is the reminder after the support payments were deducted?

Thanks for this - it was precisely what I was worrying about that she'd had the money and it had evaporated (the way money does).  But yes - £67, while incredible, is actually consistent with her lifestyle.  Tiddly flat, tiddly fridge, doesn't cook or watch tv or own a computer.  So very very low use.   And the bank account has been checked and it was NOT received there.

Fortunately I was able to get through to BG who were happy to discuss this and they have confirmed that she has now had another 4 payments credited to her so her account is actually in credit by a substantial amount.  There does seem to still be one missing and no explanation as to why the first payment was made in March when the rest of the world was getting theirs starting in October.  And no comment about when she will get the 6th payment.  But crisis over for now.  

[Deleted User]

Good news. Does she actually have a bank account? I suspect that because of her low usage her account has fallen into a ‘blackhole’.

Brie

Yes she has one account.  I've seen the statements so I knew they hadn't gone there.  But that might not stop her from having a second account somewhere connected to her utility account some how and payments could conceivably have gone there.  Unfortunately she's not the sort that would be able to give a sensible answer when that kind of question is asked. 

More likely I guess that because there are no banking details whatsoever it did throw the big BG computer into a tizzy.

TheElectricCow

In that case hats off to her for managing such an impressively low usage! Glad to hear BG acknowledged the issue and (mostly) resolved it in a timely manner