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?!

Our payments to the utilities company were reduced by £66 but I asked to put them back up so that with the extra govt money we were paying over, which helped us through winter.

Edit: I think utilities companies needed to be clearer about reducing/refunding payments

Our £66 was paid directly into our bank account like some other previous posters have mentioned. The sensible thing we should have done was pay it back into the energy account but busy life etc (excuses!) and just one of those things we kept saying we’ll do. We still reduced the £66, it just would have been used to pay for other living expenses (or chocolate or wine).

Can you speak to your energy supplier and ask for any suggestions? It’s scary to see that amount of debt abut there will also be thousands who are in the same situation. Hope you got some rest OP.

British Gas did this to me and I just sent it straight back again via the app.

@Pinkpinkpink15 that's interesting - I guess that's in the territory of the problem of energy companies being shite at working out a fair anticipated DD than a specific problem with the government scheme though...? That said, it seems in OPs case they were giving her back too much - in my experience the energy Co are usually trying to take too much wherever possible!

@NotTonightDeidre I hope my middle of the night messages were not too garbled - I still think you are best off digging out your energy bills from Oct 22 to Mar 23 and looking at the exact details there. If you cannot see any reference to the government scheme monies landing each month please do take it up with your supplier. To be honest, even if you think in retrospect that the payments were made correctly, it's still OK to contact them about payment options for the debit you now have. I hope you get to the bottom of things one way or another!

Hi OP...I won't get into the government rebate issue but if you can, log on to your online account and see how much you are actually using each month and then set your direct debit at a comfortable amount with a bit extra so you can chip away at what's owing. If you can't do this online, ring them and see if you can have a conversation.

I manage the energy account for my dad and he'd accrued a £800 debt and they wanted £250 a month which is way, way beyond what he could afford. I spoke to them, explained and they were really good (obviously it depends on the energy company!) and we agreed on £120 a month.

My dad got the additional cost of living help and when those payments came in, he chipped away at the debt and now the account is in the clear.

I think the DD amount is usually just suggested automatically by their system and I've definitely found that negotiation is possible.
I'm sorry you're in this situation and I know how worrying it can be!

But they paid you £66 each month. So you were £400 better off back then. It was up to you how you spent that £400.

The cost of energy was very high then, so many of us paid more than usual even with the government support.

You could have paid the £66 back to your energy account rather than spending it though so you cant really blame the government.

My energy company left it in my energy account and reduced my direct debit to compensate. I had control over the direct debit though and can increase or decrease whenever I want to

I can honestly say it was very helpful for us. so YABU

but sometimes when you're stressed about money (especially near christmas) everything is so overwhelming and it's hard to see through the murk of it all. So YANBU for being stressed, worried and angry at the situation. Sending you best wishes OP

I think that this winter is going to be a shock for some people.
We don't have the £400.
The price cap has changed - and it's got more confusing as it's been redefined as well

What is the energy price cap? | MoneySavingExpert

Are you with OVO by any chance? I was and they did this with me and I didn't notice for months.. Absolutely no idea why they did it this way, but it was our responsibility to pay it back to them, to cover the energy price increase so,
It was paid to OVO..
They paid it to me..
I was supposed to pay it back..
I switched provider because I was so annoyed with them once I'd realised what had happened, had never had a deficit on my account before.

It is worth tracking your energy use,,either by regularly reading the meter or having a smart meter. Then it will be obvious if you're underpaying - for example I know I use around £5 per day, so if my monthly bill is much different to £150 I know to look into it.

I got the refund into my bank account for some reason. So, every month I just used it to pay "extra" straight back onto my electricity account.

It kept everything straight, and I'm still in credit now.

Giving people the money for them to use as they wished was a bit of a double edged sword.

It could have helped many put food on the table or pay for other essentials. Or it could have been used frivolously. Either way it's not helped with the cost of energy which is now a problem for the OP.

OP as you have a big debt and it sounds like you're struggling, look on Moneysavingexpert.com to see what help is available.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/how-to-get-help-if-you-re-struggling-with-your-energy-bills-/

They have to treat you fairly and not ask you to set the DD above what you can afford.

Will you be receiving the other cost of living payment that's due about now? That would help too.

Mine would take my full DD of£72 and then refund the £66 from the govt. so £72 was still going in. Partly from me and partly from the govt.

But you’ve had the money back, you just didn’t notice.

Yes, simply put, they didn't reduce your bill by £400. They gave you £400 into your bank account. Either way, you were £400 better off.

I think your issue is that you haven't been submitting regular, monthly meter readings. Is that right? If so, this is the reason for a large debt and increase in direct debit.

You might be better off with a smart meter if you can’t commit to providing regular readings.

The government GAVE everybody £400 so you paid your normal payments PLUS had an extra £400.

like mine your utility company put it into your bank account

YOU then spent it on something. I simply repaid mine back to the utility company

So it’s YOu that’s at fault here, no one else

@NotTonightDeidre

you need to look at your bills. Mine show my normal payment going in PLUS the £66/67 pm. Then they sent the £66/67 to my bank account, which I then sent back

they did not reduce your dd by sending back money you sent them on your payment

Your energy company did the same as mine and refunded £400 into your bank account.

Some people sent it straight back to the energy company. Personally I couldn't afford to do that at the time. Lots of people could not afford to send it back.

Speak to your supplier as they will help.

The government

A) capped the cost of energy so you were paying less per unit than you would/should have been if the prices were set by the market.

B) gave £400 towards the bill. Different energy companies handled this differently so it was a bit confusing. But the government did pay £400 in.

Despite that, energy over the last year and a bit has been very expensive for those on the variable rate. Easily 2-3x whatever they were paying before, depending on previous fixed rates. To keep up even with the help, I had to put our DD up by x2.5 though it's dropped a little now - still almost twice what it used to be before all this.

This doesn't help you now but may help future you or anyone else - it is critical you understand your energy usage, the price you are paying for it and track how much you have/need to pay each month to stay on top. It takes a few mins to get your head round it but once you do, you should never be surprised by a bill again. You should know more about your usage and annual cost than the energy supplier does. It's really important.

Yes OP as others have explained you seem to have misunderstood the government £400 scheme.

As an aside, as another poster has suggested, you need to spend a bit of time today really looking at your energy account and understanding what you’re looking at and where exactly the increase has come in. Is it that you last submitted a meter reading 6 months or so ago and so now you’ve been billed on your actual readings it has created this big bill? Check the bill, has it been done to actual readings or estimated? Have you recently come out of a fixed deal- if your fixed deal was a 2 or 3 year one then your energy rates have almost certainly at least doubled if not tripled now?

You need to understand your energy bill and usage really inside out, it does take a bit of time but it will save you any further unexpected stress on bills.

This doesn't help you now but may help future you or anyone else - it is critical you understand your energy usage, the price you are paying for it and track how much you have/need to pay each month to stay on top. It takes a few mins to get your head round it but once you do, you should never be surprised by a bill again. You should know more about your usage and annual cost than the energy supplier does. It's really important

This. The number of people saying things like 'I fixed at £XXX pm so I don't understand why they want more money' is astounding. Plus if you have one of those unhelpful energy companies that only bills every six months, you need to really keep on top of it, preferably calculating the cost yourself in between to make sure you are keeping up (or not building up an unnecessarily large credit). If you struggle with the maths, there will be online calculators available to help.

Also need to understand how much your monthly bill will vary across the year, what types of appliance costs the most to run and what you can do to reduce your energy bill where possible, and seek help available if you are entitled to it.

All of this is available in straightforward language on the Moneysaving Expert website - there's a link at the top of the homepage to all things energy.

I don't think we got any bell at home but I actually had a lot of bell for my business which I'm so grateful for or I would probably have had to close down. I was getting 800 per month bills and the government put a massive credit on there which lasted a few months.