Energy customers overcharged by £102m in a year, says uswitch
ENERGY companies face a fresh public battle after new findings revealed that consumers have still been overcharged by an “unacceptable” £100m as a result of billing blunders, even as complaint rates fall.
The industry’s second major spat in as many weeks has erupted after a sur- vey of energy users found that around 1.3 million bill payers claim to have been overcharged by their energy supplier in the year ending in May.
The report, from energy switching site uswitch, said consumers were typically overcharged by £79 each, at a total cost of £102m to consumers.
Most bill payers managed to claim their money back, but the process has typically taken on average 35 days, and 3pc have “never got their money back”.
Claire Osborne, from uswitch, said the suppliers’ mistakes were “unacceptable”. “Households are already feeling the pinch from recent energy price rises, and having to chase for an average of 35 days to get their money back simply adds insult to injury,” Ms Osborne said.
“We want to see companies do much more to make life easier for their customers, accurate bills are the bare minimum they should expect from their energy suppliers,” she added. But the energy trade body has hit back at the report, claiming it shows that suppliers have managed to reduce its overall number of complaints by 2 million.
The industry ombudsman’s latest report revealed 3.5 million complaints in the 12 months of 2016, of which 2.6 million related to billing issues, including overcharging and other errors. By these estimates the average number of billing complaints per month is down roughly by half.
“Companies work hard to get things right and, when things do go wrong, most complaints are dealt with by the end of the next working day with no more than a phone call,” said Lawrence Slade, Energy UK’S chief executive.
The industry regulator Ofgem said it had already taken strong action to address billing failures in the industry and had secured payouts totalling £40m from suppliers found to have treated customers unfairly.
“We are working with suppliers to make bills easier to understand and Ofgem’s rules already require suppliers to make clear on bills whether they are based on a customer’s actual or estimated energy usage,” a spokesman said.
He added that smart meters will address the issue of estimated readings because these consumers will be billed based on their actual energy usage.