E.ON Next Winter affodability scheme

wbowindy

Hi All, I applied for the winter affordability scheme at E.ON Next, I fulfil all the criterea, but they have told me that unless I give my consent for them to have access to my bank account to look at my statements directly I cannot continue with the application. I have made a complaint, they state that this is "standard procedure" according to Jude, a complaint officer. I replied that traditionally customers send their bank statement to companies themselves either by email or post, but E.ON Next are not willing to accept that form of receiving a bank statement. We are now in deadlock and I am going to continue with my complaint to the energy ombudsman regarding this policy of only accepting a bank statement that they can directly access in my bank account. I will post again when I have made the complaint to the ombudsman and let you know the outcome.

CrispyChris

Doubt if the energy ombudsman will help you, this is an EON Next scheme outside the ombudsman's remit.

PennineAcute

I doubt they are going to publicise your incoming and outgoing payments. 

They cannot do anything if you allow access.  They are just checking that your income fulfils their criteria.

People have been known to forge bank statements in the past.

Brie

Do you mean they want you to give them your logon and password so they can go online to look at your account?  If so that's in direct conflict with what any bank will tell you is acceptable.  What if you didn't use online banking??  

Brie

@[Deleted User]
so how did they actually access your transactions?

molerat

Brie said:

@[Deleted User]
so how did they actually access your transactions?

Through "open banking" which they are licenced to use, same as when you give your bank details to the MSE Credit Club.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/open-banking/

tifo

I did mine last week after they insisted i complete an income and expenses through Paylink. I was eligible through the WHD anyway. They asked me to complete an income and expenses last month too and i didn't, me saying i don't need to. Anyway, i didn't give them access to my bank account, there's a link below that to enter figures manually which i did. I don't think they even looked at it.

I emailed ceo@ eon next raising the issue with them, i got an email next day saying i'm eligible and to call the number to set it up, which i did. I don't think my income and expense was even looked at.

wbowindy

Hi All, to update: The ombudsman has accepted my case.
I have forwarded evidence to her of conflicting emails sent the same day one at 3.48pm and one at 5.31pm by Jude of E.ON Next on 8/11/2023. The first email states that linking my bank account to paylink is optional and the second email sent a couple of hours later states that it is not optional!! The policy appears to of changed within a couple of hours! After that date it appears that E.ON Next no longer will accept my bank statement to be sent to them by me and only accept a paylink access, which would need my consent,  to check my bank statement themselves. My complaint is that E.ON Next will not accept a bank statement sent by myself and I am given no option but to consent to them accessing my bank statement via their paylink form for the application to proceed to be considered for the Winter Affordability Scheme.This seems to me to be a form of company blackmail, it does not seem reasonable to me to refuse to consider my application under those circumstances. I have not objected to sending E.ON Next my bank statements myself but they will not accept a bank statement that way. 

wbowindy

NB I am on ESA, the priority services register, I have a smart meter and pay via DD and was formerly eligable for the WHD before the Governement changed the criterea regarding eligability with the EPC certificate. 

MultiFuelBurner

wbowindy said:

Hi All, to update: The ombudsman has accepted my case.
I have forwarded evidence to her of conflicting emails sent the same day one at 3.48pm and one at 5.31pm by Jude of E.ON Next on 8/11/2023. The first email states that linking my bank account to paylink is optional and the second email sent a couple of hours later states that it is not optional!! The policy appears to of changed within a couple of hours! After that date it appears that E.ON Next no longer will accept my bank statement to be sent to them by me and only accept a paylink access, which would need my consent,  to check my bank statement themselves. My complaint is that E.ON Next will not accept a bank statement sent by myself and I am given no option but to consent to them accessing my bank statement via their paylink form for the application to proceed to be considered for the Winter Affordability Scheme.This seems to me to be a form of company blackmail, it does not seem reasonable to me to refuse to consider my application under those circumstances. I have not objected to sending E.ON Next my bank statements myself but they will not accept a bank statement that way. 

You may find as this is a scheme run by Eon outside of the ombudsman remit that they will not be able to force Eon to accept you on the scheme but could award a poor customer service amount to be added to your account.

I hope it works out for you but just be aware.

tifo

wbowindy said:

Hi All, to update: The ombudsman has accepted my case. 

By the time the ombudsman makes a decision, and they take a long time, the scheme might have been withdrawn in which case you'd not be able to be put on it, unless the ombudsman directs eon to backdate your payments as if you had been put on the scheme, to be honest this seems unlikely as, from my experience, the ombudsman sides with the energy supplier, like most ombudsman quangos do.

Your best option would be to get on the scheme while it's running.

You've not said if the paylink account gave you the option to enter figures manually rather than connect to your bank. That's how i did it. As long as eon have a budget from you they probably won't care how the figures were entered.

You can call paylink on 0808 5015200