Is Octopus back-billing me?

doodleoo

Hello all.
I started my account with Octopus in 2020 before the energy cap was increased, and my direct debit was £27 based on my usage (all my bills are paid by direct debit, because that way I know they are being paid and I can avoid anxiety and panic attacks that I got when I had to deal with them).
Octopus send me an email each month telling me they are taking the £27 on such and such date, and each email goes straight to the Octopus file. 
Last week their email said they were taking £545 as my monthly payment. Just for reference, I earn £560 per month, and live with my son in a tiny two bed mid terrace.
When I called them, they said I was £4500 in arrears. I was able to get them to pause the bill increase until I get advice and figure out my finances, but I'm now wondering if they are at least partly at fault, and are perhaps trying to back-bill me.
I don't set the direct debit amount- they do. They could have increased the amount at any point over the last three years, but they didn't. I had a smart meter fitted last year (by them) so they are up to date with my usage and meter readings. I obviously never intended to have any arrears, hence the direct debit, and my entire income with my wage and benefits leaves me a total of £130 each month for food for two of us AND the energy bill, and now they not only want to increase it but add on a payment plan to clear all the arrears. 
I'm not sure where I stand, and Octopus aren't going to own up to it if they are in the wrong. I can't help but feel it's their fault that there are any arrears because they set the amount I pay each month, and if they are back-billing me, then I could potentially reduce the amount by roughly £3000.
Help and advice, please.

MeteredOut

Have you checked whether you have used the energy they claim?

Have they been sending you bills and have you been checking that they are correct? ie. based on your actual usage/smart meter readings?

MWT

doodleoo said:

I'm not sure where I stand, and Octopus aren't going to own up to it if they are in the wrong. I can't help but feel it's their fault that there are any arrears because they set the amount I pay each month, and if they are back-billing me, then I could potentially reduce the amount by roughly £3000.
Help and advice, please.

Have you actually looked at a bill in the last 4 years?

It is only 'back-billing' if they have suddenly billed you for energy that you used over 12 months ago that had not previously been billed.

Chasing for additional payment for amounts previously billed is not 'back-billing'...

There are ways in which a large bill can be accidentally generated, but this should be obvious if you look at your bills over the past few years and see if there is a steadily rising balance or if it suddenly has gone up due to a recent very large bill...

Mobtr

You have only been paying £27 per month for the last 4 years eventhough energy prices have more than doubled in that time. 

Were you on a cheap fix or Standard Variable? 

Did you give monthly readings?
Did you check each bill as you received it each month to make sure it was correct, your payments were covering what you were using & the readings were correct? 

If the answer to the last 2 questions were no, then I’m afraid ignorance is no form of defence. It is down to personal responsibility to check these things, you have 1 bill per month to check is correct, Octopus have several million, sometimes some fall through the net. 

Have they tried to increase your direct debit over the years but you have requested it stays the same? Octopus are very good at just doing what the customer requests regardless of whether it’s the right thing or not. 

You need to go through all your bills to see where this has built up from & learn from it. If you call Octopus they should be able to work out what your usage is on a monthly basis, set the d/d at this + extra to cover the previous shortfall. 

Reed_Richards

I presume you were not supplying Octopus with meter readings before you got your smart meter so they were estimating (=guessing) your energy use.  But they should have got a final reading from your old meter when it was removed and they should have been able to bill you correctly thereafter with readings taken from your new smart meter.  So why did they wait until now to do something about your big debit when they must have known about it last year?  There was another post on here recently where they did the same thing to someone else, delayed a long time before issuing a correction.  Something must be wrong in their system to cause such long delays before a corrected bill is issued but I don't know if this would be covered by back-billing rules. 

MWT

Reed_Richards said:

Something must be wrong in their system to cause such long delays before a corrected bill is issued but I don't know if this would be covered by back-billing rules. 

It is only if the billing is not accurate that the back-billing rules come into play, if they have been billing correctly but just not chasing the debt, then the rules have no effect.

Unless the OP is willing to actually look at their bills, we cannot really do much more to help.

If for example there were no meter readings supplied or taken by a meter reader between 2020 and the fitting of the smart meter then there may be an element of back-billing in play, but that can only be determined by looking at those bills...

Gerry1

It sounds a bit harsh but paying only £27 per month was always going to end in tears, they're almost last century's prices.

That said, Octopus do seem to have seriously goofed because the problem should have been spotted much earlier.

Ask them for a payment plan so that it becomes affordable.

@Dolor would know the answers about back billing, but sadly he's been banned.  Ask Octopus about waiving a fair chunk of the outstanding amount, and consider going to the ombudsman if they don't agree.

ashe

Even way, way before this crisis started, when I was living in a  2 bed end terrace with my girlfriend, we paid about £70 a month average for electricity and gas. I know some people will be frugal but after standing charges, low as they were, I can't see how £27 would ever have covered it. 

QrizB

Gerry1 said:

It sounds a bit harsh but paying only £27 per month was always going to end in tears, they're almost last century's prices.

These days, depending on region, it'll barely cover the standing charge.

MWT said:

doodleoo said:

I'm not sure where I stand, and Octopus aren't going to own up to it if they are in the wrong. I can't help but feel it's their fault that there are any arrears because they set the amount I pay each month, and if they are back-billing me, then I could potentially reduce the amount by roughly £3000.
Help and advice, please.

Have you actually looked at a bill in the last 4 years?

That was going to be my question, too.

If your bills have shown a asteadily increasing debt for the past four years, it's not back-billing.

doodleoo said:

I don't set the direct debit amount- they do.

You can change your monthly DD amount via your on-line Octopus account. You can also monitor your account balance there.

MWT

doodleoo said:

Hello all.
I started my account with Octopus in 2020 before the energy cap was increased, and my direct debit was £27 based on my usage (all my bills are paid by direct debit, because that way I know they are being paid and I can avoid anxiety and panic attacks that I got when I had to deal with them).

Depending on the DD to ensure you are accurately paying for your energy when you didn't have a working smart meter does require you to submit regular meter readings, did you ever do that, or do you recall a meter reader ever visiting to take a reading?

Looking at the bills now is unavoidable, and it is worth doing as there is the possibility that there has been a mistake that could save you a lot of money, but you do have to check at least a few of the bills to see if there is anything to be saved...

For a start, take a look at the bill right before you had the smart meter installed, check and see if that one had a balance owed and if so how much.

Then look at the first bill after the smart meter was installed and see what the balance owed was on that bill.

If there is a large difference between those two then it is at least possible that you may have a claim under the back-billing rules, but until you do that we can only guess...

lohr500

• Are you using gas and electricity or just electricity?
• On the electricity are you on a single or Economy 7 type tariff?
• Can you remember the last time you supplied Octopus with actual readings from your old meter?
• Is there a sticker close to the new smart meter showing what the final reading was on the ols meter and the start reading on the new meter and if so, what are the old and new meter readings and what date does it show?
• What is the reading/s on the smart meter today.
• What is your current tariff called?
• What is the current daily standing charge and unit rate/s.

Based on answers to the above, it might be possible for us to work out what you have actually used and to see if this correlates with what Octopus are asking you to pay.

As others have commented though, £27 a month was incredibly low and you must surely have thought about this with all the news about massive cost increases in 2022/2023.