£150 Warm Home discount went to previous energy company, best way to deal ?

BensonBooga

So my elderly mother switched from Octopus to Fuse energy a month ago. She just found out that a few days ago the £150 warm home discount from the government went to Octopus. Is it down to Octopus to pass on the discount to Fuse, or does something else happen ? Thanks. 

pmduk

Somebody has reported, in a different thread , that as an ex-customer, their WHD was paid to their bank account by Octopus.

Spoonie_Turtle

As her supplier on the qualifying date it is Octopus' responsibility to get the money to her somehow.  The Ofgem page recommends contacting them to make sure they have up-to-date details - but since she only switched a month ago, and you don't mention moving house or anything, Octopus will almost certainly have her details still.  So I wouldn't worry unless it hasn't turned up in a reasonable timeframe; Octopus have been sending the WHDs out just recently so you can work out what you think is a reasonable length of time to wait and see if it comes through.

Muttleythefrog

I moved Octopus to Fuse. Octopus emailed to say £150 WHD. I emailed asked how they'd pay and they still had bank details and paid it quite quickly.

Octopus is ultimately responsible if on qualifying date they had their electricity supply with them. Fuse are uninvolved.

burn_everything

I have received a letter stating that I'm going to get the warm home discount, but it's been paid to the supplier I had on the 24th of August, which was Tomato Energy. I switched from Tomato Energy to Outfox Energy on the second of September this year, and now, just to complicate things, Tomato Energy went into administration last week. I have today contacted Tomato Energy, who are unable to give me any information on what is going to happen to the discount. I have also contacted the .Gov helpline number, who also can't give me any information on what's likely to happen to the discount.

Newcad

In the case of a supplier going bust then Ofgem will appoint a supplier, known as a 'Supplier of Last Resort' (SoLR), to take on their customers.

That SoLR may honour the gone-bust suppliers obligations to pay their customers the WHD, or they may not. 

See:https://www.gov.uk/the-warm-home-discount-scheme/energy-suppliers

If your supplier is no longer trading

If the electricity supplier you were with stops trading, you may still be eligible for a Warm Home Discount. Ofgem will appoint your new supplier for you.

Check with your new supplier if you’re eligible for the discount.

However in your case you have already switched and so will not need a SoLR to be appointed for you.

All that you can do in your situation is to contact your current supplier and ask.
Outfox do take part in the WHD scheme so in the circumstances they may choose to honour it for you.

Spoonie_Turtle

Newcad said:

In the case of a supplier going bust then Ofgem will appoint a supplier, known as a 'Supplier of Last Resort' (SoLR), to take on their customers.

That SoLR may honour the gone-bust suppliers obligations to pay their customers the WHD, or they may not. 

See:https://www.gov.uk/the-warm-home-discount-scheme/energy-suppliers

If your supplier is no longer trading

If the electricity supplier you were with stops trading, you may still be eligible for a Warm Home Discount. Ofgem will appoint your new supplier for you.

Check with your new supplier if you’re eligible for the discount.

However in your case you have already switched and so will not need a SoLR to be appointed for you.

All that you can do in your situation is to contact your current supplier and ask.
Outfox do take part in the WHD scheme so in the circumstances they may choose to honour it for you.

It's possible since the SOLR takes on certain obligations of the bust supplier, the WHD might be one of those obligations.

(British Gas is the SOLR for Tomato.)

Newcad

The point here is that @burn_everything had already 'jumped ship' and switched themselves to Outfox before Tomato went bust.

They will not be allocated to the SoLR because they were not a Tomato customer when Tomato went belly up.

So the only thing left that they can do is ask their current supplier, Outfox, if they will credit the WHD in the circumstances.
Outfox may agree and credit the WHD, or they may say sorry but No,
The only way to find out is to ask the question.

Spoonie_Turtle

I don't know how it works, but this was my thinking:

The WHD money is allocated to suppliers based on customers who were with them and eligible on the qualifying date.
(Where is that money, did they receive it before going bust or did Ofgem/DESNZ hold off since the writing was on the wall?)
It's the responsibility of the supplier on the qualifying date to get the money to the person even if they've left.  It's actually nothing to do with Outfox.  Whereas BG have taken over Tomato's affairs to the extent required - the question there is, does that extent include distributing all of Tomato's WHDs?

Like I said, I don't know.  I don't even know whether we have precedent because when the tens of smaller suppliers went bust before, the threshold of customer numbers was much higher to compel suppliers to participate.  (And Bulb which was a participating supplier and went bust at a similar time of year, were put into special administration rather than their customers going to a SOLR.)

The OP is not alone though, there are others wondering how they'll get their WHD over on the energy board and although I've not double checked some of them may have jumped ship too.

born_again

I think where Tomato are involved. It maybe one to ring the help line about.

Newcad

Spoonie_Turtle said:

I don't know how it works, but this was my thinking:

The WHD money is allocated to suppliers based on customers who were with them and eligible on the qualifying date.
(Where is that money, did they receive it before going bust or did Ofgem/DESNZ hold off since the writing was on the wall?)

You are making an incorrect assumption there.
Don't worry too much, you are not alone and many/most make the same incorrect assumption.
(Probably because the government likes to try and look good in the media).

People tend to assume that the WHD is a 'pot of money' given to the energy supplier by the government, - but it doesn't work like that at all.

The government only tell the suppliers who qualifies for a WHD.

The WHD is funded by the energy suppliers themselves, from what they charge all of their customers.

All of us pay around £13 a year extra on our electricity bill to pay for the WHD.

See paragraph 1.6 of this: government Briefing Paper from 2016:
https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN05956/SN05956.pdf

1.6 How is it funded?
The funding comes from participating energy suppliers and it is assumed
they then pass these costs on to all consumers through their energy
bills.