EDF & Energy Bill Support Scheme

[MenopauseSucks]

I'm with EDF & pay monthly by Direct Debit.

I had an email from them on 24th September regarding the 'UK Government's Energy Bills Support Scheme' - basically a convoluted way of talking about the £400 that we will all be getting.
According to their email, it's due to start October 2022
As I pay by monthly Direct Debit there will be an automatic refund to the bank account from which the DD is taken.

3rd October - my monthly Direct Debit has been taken - 1st working day since the start of the month.
No sign of the £66 either in my bank account or even credited to my EDF account balance.

Have any other EDF monthly DD customers received their £66 yet?

Has anyone received a bill for their usage up til midnight 30/09/22 yet?

Am just wondering whether we'll receive a bill up til then as the SVR changed at 0001 on 01/10/22.

Also... I took a meter reading on 30th September ie photographed it & emailed the photo to myself so it's all dated 30/09. Although I have a smart meter, should give EDF that meter reading just in case?

Obviously I've looked through all their useless FAQs plus am trying to contact via WhatsApp & SMS & am number gazillion in the queue hence me asking Mumsnet!

That might just be a timing issue, the 66 might come off at a later date, can you see anything at a later date online?

You might want to delete your name from the photo

Fortunately I don't mind my name appearing- it's not sensitive stuff. I will look but it's odd to take it away before it's been added surely?

Same thing with my bill. I just installed the app and yes, like others have said it shows a credit of £66 and a few days later a refund (which I received in my bank account). BUT there is no mention of this £66 credit on my bill. Only the £66 refund deducted from my payments, leaving less money towards my bill. Honest mistake from EDF or hoping to keep that government money for themselves? I spend 45 minutes on my phone waiting to speak to someone to change my direct debit to exact monthly payments a few days ago. So here we go again. Never anyone available via chat or WhatsApp.

Can you do variable DD with edf?

I assume you don't have a smart meter, how would they know how much you'd used each month. However often I log a meter reading they still only do 2 bills a year

I do have smart meters, but the gas one has never worked so I still need to submit readings. But I'd rather do that than let them take more money than I spend, always having several hundred pounds left in credit on my six-monthly bill.

So yes, if you currently pay a set monthly amount (what they call budget direct debit) you can change to 'variable' exact monthly payments and get billed monthly instead.

I have just emailed The Guardian's energy correspondent about this issue. Hopefully they will pick up the story so all EDF customers can be warned to check their bills and push EDF to correct their mis-take. Many will have seen the money come into their account and seen it added in the app without realizing it has not actually been added to their bill and that they have in fact paid themselves the money.

@Anjomanu I don't know if EDF do variable direct debits. I tried to find out what his option myself. Strange that my gas smart meter has just stopped sending readings to my hub. Not ideal.

They have two DD options: Budget direct debit and Direct Debit Whole Amount
www.edfenergy.com/for-home/help-support/ways-to-pay#dd

You need to phone them to get this changed, I did not find any options online to request it and WhatsApp advisers were not helpful, but after a long wait on the phone, they changed it over to whole amount DD pretty quickly, just need to give your bank details again.

@Anjomanu thank you. Not such a good idea in the winter but will look into for the summer.

Atomic blonde says 'they couldn't pay it out without crediting it first' but that's just what they've done. It's gone from one account into another, deducted from the credit in my electricity bill, into my bank account. End result no £66. I keep my account in the black at this time of year and need it now more than ever.

And i've been waiting nearly 3 weeks for a response.

@Waspi I believe they have credited or added £66 to your account and then refunded the £66 to your dd bank account. This is correct from what you are saying. Or am I missing something?

@Waspi has provided a screenshot showing the money being refunded from her energy account without the credit appearing first. She has not benefitted from the £66 government payment

@Waspi the screenshot is not the correct one. On the bill the refund is shown on page one of the bill and the credit on page 2. Do you have a screenshot of your payment and bills in your online account. This would be clearer.

Im very interested to hear the outcome of this as it seems so odd that one the biggest suppliers would get it wrong, I'm intigued as to how they can get it right for the majority but wrong for a few

You are right! The £66 is mentioned as a credit on page two. It looks like it's not added to the calculation on page 1 though but what they did is deduct it from the elec and gas charges total. What makes it confusing is that there is no mention of that. Just total for elec and total for gas and grand total of charges. Only when doing the sum myself did I realise the total is too low, by £66!@Waspi

@Waspi good, I knew this because I complained to EDF about it and how confusing it was. Credit/refund should be together and cancel each other out. Went over their head. Glad you're sorted. My total also £66 too low.

I feel a complete fool as I did not look at page 2. Thank you so much for pointing this out. I assumed the £152 was for energy I had used, when in fact I had used much more but the £66 had been added already to reduce that amount. Why they do it like that I can't imagine. Nobody there could explain it to me either but you have- thanks again.

I'm glad I wasn't the only one @Waspi ! Thanks @SteCon42

@Waspi ...you are not alone. I've just emailed EDF with the exact same query. It was only when I found this thread that I realized what they have done. Why oh why the information isn't all neatly detailed on the first bill page, I do not know. How convoluted

Thank you all :)

Well I had my bill in November and they have included the 4 payments of £66 or £67, as well as refunding my bank account. So there is something very wrong with their computer systems. Each month I saw a £66 credit and then a refund as someone posted above. The credits showed on my bill and I was also credited to my bank. Ha ha

They will show as credits on your bill and then they will be debited again to send to your bank account

No, they do show as credits on my last bill. They have reduced the bill by the credits (£266) However, they have also been sent to my bank!

They normally show as a refund of the same amount being debited from your energy account and that's when they get sent to your bank account

Yes they did, but when the bill arrived, I worked it all out and I owed over £600, but when I turned the page, they had taken off the £266, as well as sending it to my bank. They even refunded me as I had overpaid. I can't believe it's only happened to us.