Government help with fuel bills

peteuk

I need a sanity check…

Ive received my gas/electric bill for Jan-Jun, which shows my payments of £64 per month (Six payments equals £384)
In payments there is a credit and a refund on the same day of £67.  This shows as a refund only on my bill (two payments £134)

So surely the bill should reflect the government putting in £134.

The difference being my account is now £140 in debt rather than £6 (Ive raised this and other issues on the bill, included a GDPS issue of address)

Bearing in mind this was the only other help I received was the £150 council tax payment.  EDF automatically refunded me the payment.  Ive ran my account on a fix tariff so the payments have been 100% accurate.  

MSE_ForumTeam5

We've moved this to our Energy board. To help people give you the most helpful responses, it might be useful to say which company your energy provider is, as different firms lay out their bills differently and account for the Government support in different ways.

Spoonie_Turtle

peteuk said:

I need a sanity check…

Ive received my gas/electric bill for Jan-Jun, which shows my payments of £64 per month (Six payments equals £384)
In payments there is a credit and a refund on the same day of £67.  This shows as a refund only on my bill (two payments £134)

So surely the bill should reflect the government putting in £134.

The difference being my account is now £140 in debt rather than £6 (Ive raised this and other issues on the bill, included a GDPS issue of address)

Bearing in mind this was the only other help I received was the £150 council tax payment.  EDF automatically refunded me the payment.  Ive ran my account on a fix tariff so the payments have been 100% accurate.  

Just to clarify, are you with EDF?  This is a very common confusion because the way they set the bills out are very unclear.  If you add up the actual energy charges, then look at what they say you need to pay, you should see the difference is the charges are £134 higher than what you need to pay.

A fixed tariff is fixed unit rates and standing charges, unless the amount you use is fixed as well (unlikely, with seasonal variations especially in winter) then it is possible your direct debits didn't fully cover the cost.

(This would be better off on the energy forum, by the way, I'll ask for it to be moved.)

CSI_Yorkshire

Fixed tariff doesn't mean fixed total cost.  If you use more then you pay more.

The government payments are there, just not in a way that's easy to spot.  The usage subtotals are lower than they should be from the detailed breakdown by the amount of the discount.

Effectively you get £67 in, then they take £67 off the subtotal and still refund the £67 to your bank.  You win.

Their maths is hidden, but correct.

peteuk

CSI_Yorkshire said:

Fixed tariff doesn't mean fixed total cost.  If you use more then you pay more.

Totally get that but I’ve always adjusted my payments to my usage, for instance my last bill 6 month was £13 in credit which I left on the account.  

This bill is £390 for which I have paid £384 which leaves a £6 debt.  Which means as per previous bills my payments have been there or there about.  But the bill puts me £140 in debt.  Hidden maths they havent taken the 2X£67 off the sub total.

CSI_Yorkshire

peteuk said:

CSI_Yorkshire said:

Fixed tariff doesn't mean fixed total cost.  If you use more then you pay more.

Totally get that but I’ve always adjusted my payments to my usage, for instance my last bill 6 month was £13 in credit which I left on the account.  

This bill is £390 for which I have paid £384 which leaves a £6 debt.  Which means as per previous bills my payments have been there or there about.  But the bill puts me £140 in debt.  Hidden maths they havent taken the 2X£67 off the sub total.

Post the detailed calculations from your anonymised bill here and we'll check - but this question has been asked twenty times in the last three months and every single time the discount has been exactly where we thought it was.

Almost certainly this bill was £390 for £524-worth of energy, and you haven't paid £384 because you got £134 refunded back into your bank account.

peteuk

CSI_Yorkshire said:

Post the detailed calculations from your anonymised bill here and we'll check - but this question has been asked twenty times in the last three months and every single time the discount has been exactly where we thought it was.

Almost certainly this bill was £390 for £524-worth of energy, and you haven't paid £384 because you got £134 refunded back into your bank account.

Apologises, I know how frustrating it can be when a question is repetitively asked, I  dont tend to read the energy forum as I’m usually pretty much sorted.  This post was moved from the benefit pages to Energy.

I kinda get what you’re saying now, but the front page of the bill is very misleading.  But equally when you contact them why cant the energy provider explain this   There are other issues with the bill (like an estimated reading in a smart meter, wrong address)

CSI_Yorkshire

Oh, it's dead messy, and very poorly explained, which is probably why it's been asked so many times.  That's not your fault!