Pensioner allowed to rack up £5000 energy debt.

Bieffe

In 2020, after the death of her husband (who had previously handled all monetary matters), my sister-in-law moved her dual energy supply to a well know energy company.

She was finally diagnosed with mixed dementia (vascular dementia and Alzheimer's) in December 2022.

We have found out that she has been on a ridiculously low direct debit, and currently owes over £5000

Surely it is the responsibility of the energy supplier to review energy usage and adjust the direct debit accordingly, if not quarterly, at least every 6 months. (Mine does).

Does she have any grounds for either having this debt written off, or if not, at least a substantial reduction/discount?

Any advice you could offer would be most gratefully received.

Thanks

MWT

Has the debt built up slowly over time or was any of it due to 'back-billing' from perhaps a visit from a meter reader more than 12 months after the previous accurate bill?

If it has just been a slow increase then I'm not sure there is any reduction that she is entitled to, but that doesn't mean you can't ask on her behalf of course...

The main obligation on the supplier is to bill accurately at least once every 12 months, collection of the debts owed is considerably less regulated, but Ofgem has been critical of weaknesses in the procedures for DD reviews in both directions.

Has she been put on the suppliers 'Priority Services Register'? This would help them recognise that she may be vulnerable and alert them to her needs with regard to things like meter reading.

Robin9

This Forum does sometimes hear of the other extreme -  chasing hard for small sums after a couple of months.

£5000 over 4 years suggests an underestimate of £100 a month.

Has your Sister-In-Law recently got a bill following a meter read -  from herself or that rare breed a meter reader. It may be worth checking the reading on the bill against the meter itself. Or is it an estimate following a many estimates?

You say she has dual fuel -   is the sum due on the electricity or gas ?   Both meters can be difficult to read -  watch out for the decimal point and gas has the added potential of modern of m3/ft3 record keeping.