British Gas Double Billing VAT

LEH36

Hello, 

Apologies if this has been posted before, I did search the forum and I couldn't see it anywhere.  

I recently moved back to the UK and resumed gas and electricity accounts with British Gas.  If, like me, you don't have a smart meter and are a bit slow submitting meter readings each month, you will have an estimated bill, which gets corrected on the following months bill/statement. 

To adjust for over/under charging, British Gas will refund the pre-VAT electricity or gas charges, and the pre-VAT standard charges, and then reapply the corrected rates/charges, calculate the VAT and your new bill total is generated.  

However, the VAT charge calculated from the refunded charges is not refunded, and it is carried forward in your overall balance, and then VAT is charged again the following month on any adjustments.  

I spoke to British Gas about this, and I did get compensation as a form of apology, but they essentially said this is how their system works and they can not change this.  I was told to try and submit the meter reading on time to avoid this happening again in the future.  

Therefore, I imagine this is happening to every customer that doesn't have a smart meter - thats a tidy little profit for them right there! 

QrizB

Respectfully, I think you've got the wrong end of the stick.

If you would like to share your bills here (having removed any personal identifying info) we can help you understand.

MyRealNameToo

Think you need to brush up on your maths

If you were billed and estimated £1,000 net so £1,050 gross one period then in the next bill you are billed an estimated £1,000 again but get a £400 correction for overbilling on the prior period you would pay £630 gross so a total of £1,680 paid

Had they simply charged you £600 and £1,000 and not had the rebate you would still have been paying £1,680 in total.