To think the government's energy help was no help at all?!

[NotTonightDeidre]

Having just submitted a meter reading my energy company have now told me I'm roughly £500 in debit & they want to increase my DD to £400++ as a result.
I've been looking into my account & bills to try & work out how we've ended up in this position as historically our energy bills remained in credit. What I've discovered is thst basically if the company hadn't refunded the government "help" I'd be up to date with my account. I was paying in £165 & then they were refunding £66/£67. The amount they refunded = £400. They'd already put my DD up which totalled £168 extra over 12 months. That totals £568. I'm in debit by £528.
Why the hell did they not just leave the money there to pay the bill which is what it was supposed to be for?!?! This doesn't feel like a discount on my energy bill whatsoever.
I didn't gain anything at all from this. They just refunded me my own money, making my payment less at the time but have put me into debt further down the line. I know I was stupid not to realise how this would work out, but it was sold as a "discount" which I thought meant I'd actually pay less for the same amount of energy. I'm losing sleep over this, hence the middle of the night post. I have tried to speak to them to sort it but no-one called back Friday as they said they would. I surely can't be the only stupid person that's been caught out like this?!

But they refunded you £400 so you were £400 better off- you might not have it now but for a lot of people this was a life saver at a time when the cost of energy was rising rapidly. I think if your angry with anyone it is your energy company for the fact they didn’t make you aware of the rising debt not the government for trying to reduce your bills…?

It didn't reduce the bill though did it?! Reducing the bill would have meant I got lower priced energy.

If a meal out usually cost you £60 but you got a 50% reduction, would you then be happy to pay £90 the next time as a result?!

They haven't reduced the bill at all, they've just delayed it.

I don't understand how any of the "help" ever worked out. I’m a lone parent with one child. We survive on Universal Credit. I pay £100 each month to cover gas and electric. I’m now almost £500 in debt to So Energy. I don't use our heating. I didn’t last winter and won't this year either. We have fleece bedding and plenty of thick fleece pyjamas, blankets, socks, cheap Primark oodies to keep us warm. Every single electrical device in the house is switched off at the socket unless we are using it. I used to love being able to see the time on my microwave
I can't cover that debt on the little I receive. It's only going to increase. If we left all lights blazing every day, every appliance switched on then maybe fair enough but we don’t.
I'd fucking love to put the heating on as I have Raynauds and I've had to go on medication to help with it.

@hoobanoobie I'm sorry you're in this position. It's pretty shit isn't it. 😔

I think you've got things confused here OP. The way it worked was that the government paid £66/£67 into every energy account for a few months totaling £400. This means you got £400 energy paid for by them. It sounds like (for some reason!) your energy company paid this through to you at the time by refunding you the same amount which presumably you didn't realise and spent on other things so now don't have. But regardless, the scheme was that each energy account got £400 of it paid by the government, so that's the "discount" as it were!

@EnterFunnyNameHere but in that case, shouldn't it show as going into my account from the government & back out to me??

This is what I don't understand.

@NotTonightDeidre

its late, you're not thinking clearly. Get some sleep & think about it tomorrow.

but basically the Govt (well tax payers!!) put £400 into your energy account. With your DD this meant you were in credit. Your STUPID energy supplier put this into your bank account (as did mine) & you spent it on other things. You should have saved it to pay this bill off.

your energy supplier was unhelpful & made a terrible calculation, but yes, ultimately you spent the money intended for the energy bill.

no matter how you look at this your title is wrong. You had £400 from the government to reduce your energy cost, of course it helped.

It should show up in the payments section of your energy account. So if I look at my payment history I can see a £66/£67 credit from the government scheme each month followed by a payment by me (which was my usual amount minus the £66/£67) meaning the total paid off each month added up to what I would have usually paid by myself.

So for ease say my usual direct debit amount was £200. I would have a £66 credit go in from the government, and then my payment in was reduced to £134. So each month I was getting my £200 of energy but only paying £134 for it.

It sounds to me (but you'd need to look at your payment history in detail) that in your case the £66 gov payment went in, your usual £200 went in, but then they refunded you by £66 to have the same effect?

@EnterFunnyNameHere how you've described it is what I'd expect. That's not what has happened. I paid in £165 (or whatever). They paid me back £66. So only £159 went towards my bill.

@Pinkpinkpink15 thanks for that really unhelpful statement.

I can't sleep because I'm so worried about the debt & the potential consequences of them increasing my DD to almost £500.

I've felt sick constantly since I found this out. I literally cannot sleep.

I think this is basically correct but I would say it wasn't necessarily the energy company being 'stupid" by refunding the £400 back to OPs bank account - that's how the scheme was meant to work. It wasn't putting £400 in each energy account to build up an extra £400 credit. It was using energy accounts as a way of giving each household £400, to benefit from at the time it was paid. It wouldn't have been possibly to achieve this by gifting £400 straight to bank accounts, as people have more than one and a household can certainly have more than one bank account in play.

If the energy Co had not refunded/reduced the amounts then effectively it would have just been giving them a huge amount of money in credit across the country and us (as end users) would have got no benefit at the time at all!

If you're confident that this is the case you need to contact your energy company and ask them to demonstrate how the £66 (per month) payment from the government was paid to your account as you can't see it, as it sounds like there has been a cock up!

Maybe send them the bills from the corresponding period to demonstrate that it wasn't applied to your account and get a complaint raised. As far as I remember, no UK domestic households were excluded from the scheme.

This page describes how the scheme worked to get relevant dates and references: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/400-energy-bills-discount-to-support-households-this-winter

@NotTonightDeidre

I'm sorry you find an explanation of why being given £400 is helpful.

I very much doubt it hasn't been done correctly or there would have been a huge outcry from people using the same energy company, but contact the energy company if that's what you think.

I would suggest you look at your usage & the actual cost of your fuel compared to last year. Rather than comparing DD's. The cost of the standing charge & fuel has increased.

but I wouldn't want to be unhelpful 💁🏻‍♀️

I'm genuinely sorry you're so worried about this, but accusing people of being unhelpful when they're trying to help you, really isn't the way forward.

@EnterFunnyNameHere from what people were saying, some companies did keep the money when they assessed that there would be shortfalls & people complained about that.

it was all done in a bit of a hurry & possibly not the best, but £400 still helped. I wanted British Gas to stop putting the money into my bank & just let the credit build up - but it seemed beyond either their comprehension or ability. It all seems part of their cat & mouse! They put my DD down, I put it up over & over. I wish they'd leave it the feck alone!!

Ours was credited to our energy account, my account built up an excess, I chose not to withdraw it but to leave it there for future bills. Your energy company has given it back to you, rather than let it sit on your balance, did you not wonder why you were getting £67 a month back? You should've either saved it or re-credited it to your energy account. What I would be querying assuming you either have a smart meter or provide regular readings, is why it's got to a £500 deficit before showing on your account

If you are £500 in debit then your bills should have been (500/12) £41/month more over the last year. Increasing your DD by £82 (for simplicity) will pay this debt off over a year as well as ensure you are paying for the energy you are using.
Energy companies are notorious at suggesting ludicrously high DDs but both you and they need to ensure you don't get into high levels of debt.
How often do you submit a meter reading? You should be doing this monthly.
Look at your bills and work out yourself what your DD needs to be to cover your current usage and bring down your debt.

We kept all the money they refunded and put it back into our energy account to stop the DD going up .

We have prepayment meters so if money is tight and we can't top up, we'd have no electricity or gas. Two adults working full time and we also receive universal credit, it was still a massive help and very much needed, meant we could use the heating, have hot showers and cook food.
Thankfully our provider dropped their prices massively this year but without that government payment each month, many people are going to struggle this winter.

Ours was the same. British Gas has sent it to us. So we sent it back and added it into our credit. Was a life saver last year. I would phone them and double check what happened.

Mine just took the money off the bill. They adjusted our direct debit but that's to be expected surely? I'm confused what your provider has done OP.

Exactly this.
Look back at bank statements and you'll see the payments.
You got £400 that you didn't have to start with.

It went back out to your bank account, so you got the money!

Our provider did the same as OPs. Government scheme paid it to them and instead of it just staying there as a credit to the account, and so reducing bill, it was paid into the bill payers bank account. Apparently this was the best system for the companies- basically we could then use that money to up our dd if needed, or pay lump sum/extra payment for a few months if needed. Many folk probably spent it on other things when it hit their bank account but that doesn't mean they didn't get the money though.

Ahhh I seee thank you!

It sounds like you should have had the £66 a month into your bank account then OP?

So your bill is £165
The goverment scheme meant you got £66 into your account each month
So:

• £165 coming out of your bank account

+ £66 going into your account

You actually only reduced your bank balance by £99
That is how it worked. You had £400 of your bill from Sep to March (I think) reduced by £66 each month.

At least what happened is that the £165 was your direct debit and you actually spent/ bill was much higher? So if you were spending more than £165 + £66 = £231, then you were actually accumulating debt.
Have a look to your energy bills again, with calm. And have a double look at the meter readings and your KWh usage in the bills and your current one. It should say whether they did use a real meter reading or an estimate.
They cannot up your DD to £400 per month. And you can discuss a payment agreement with them, to pay it on installments.
Now, watch your energy bill like a hawk this winter.