[chrisunitt]

Hi All,

The full amount of my direct debit has been collected this month, not the amount after the £66 reduction has been applied.

Is this something specific to my account or has something gone wrong on a bigger scale?

Cheers,

Chris.

[retrotecchie]

@chrisunitt

No, your logic would only apply if your prices had not gone up on 01 October.

September bill 90 odd quid, October payment for that bill, roughly the same, give or take.

October bill going to be much bigger....much, because of the price hikes. What would have been a 90 odd bill in September will be nearer £160 in October. Without the grants, your DD would have to go up to 170 or so to keep on track.

Government give you the grant of 66....that comes off the bill, meaning your DD stays at around what it was, maybe a little more, so you only pay the original DD, not a huge DD.

The 'deduction' from your DD is not an actual 'deduction'....it's just that without the grant, your DD would have been increased massively. As in, if it would have been set to around £170, the 'deduction' is in effect keeping it at roughly the same rate. Not giving you another £66 off your £100, but stopping the 66 increase you would have otherwise needed to uplift to.

Instead of you having to pay the whole chunk of a £170 bill, the government pays £66 onto your tab, and you get to pay the rest.

[Beki]

I've been having a look at some accounts today. I think I understand what has happened in most of these instances.

In most cases 1st October DD payments have been reduced by the EBSS payment (£67).

At the same time, energy prices have increased up to the EPG so this has still increased customers prices who are on the Next Flex tariff.

For example...
September 1st DD = £100
October 1st DD = £33
The new payment from November 1st with the EPG price cap rates = £200 minus the EBSS would mean that your energy price is £133/£134 per month.

I'm sharing a copy of the email I received as an example.

You're on a variable tariff which means your energy prices can go up or down. As you've probably heard, wholesale energy costs are higher than they've ever been (and even renewable backed energy has to be bought on the wholesale market) so unfortunately your prices will need to increase on 1 October.

However, the government recently announced that the price cap is being replaced by the Energy Price Guarantee (EPG), so your prices aren't rising by as much as previously expected. You can find out more and see your current and new prices in the attached document.

[retrotecchie]

Originally Posted by chrisunitt

Hi All,

The full amount of my direct debit has been collected this month, not the amount after the £66 reduction has been applied.

Is this something specific to my account or has something gone wrong on a bigger scale?

Cheers,

Chris.

Your direct debit was collected as per usual. The credit has not arrived yet. When it does, it will be credited to your energy account. Next month, it will either offset some of your bill, and you pay DD as usual, or it may reduce your next DD, depending on if you pay by Fixed or Variable DD.

Your DD pays your bill retrospectively for the previous billing period. The grant is an advance against your next bill. If your DD was reduced last month, that was possibly something to do with bill or payment timings, or more likely this is a whole new ball game and someone somewhere hadn't actually figured out the logic.

[chrisunitt]

@retrotecchie

Like most people I'm on a fixed direct debit, and they are supposed to have reduced this by £66. There should be 2 credit transactions per month for fixed DD customers: The direct debit minus £66 + the £66 from the support scheme. e.g for someone on a £100 fixed direct debit, £34 by DD + £66.

The money has gone out of my bank account will wait and see if it gets credited to my eon account plus the £66 support. This will leave me with nearly £600 credit.

[retrotecchie]

If you pay bill in full, by DD, they will take it off your available credit. Fixed DD means you pay over the odds in the summer, low energy months to build up credit for the High energy winter months for which you don't have to pay so much, keeping your payments fairly even across the year. March and October price rises blew that that theory right out of the window, hence them having to up your DD...government handouts or no.

[Andy65]

Hi @chrisunitt

You're not the first to mention this in the last day or so there may be a wider problem as you suggest.
However, mine has worked okay although my normal DD is less than £66 so it's been set to zero and it's stayed there this month.

I'm wondering whether it might be worth waiting until the £66 is credited to your energy account, it may then be refunded back to your bank account. If it isn't then you should raise the issue with Customer Services.

[meldrewreborn]

@chrisunitt

Its entirely possible that things have gone awry - this is E.On Next we're discussing. But it will be sorted eventually. Can you confirm whether you're on a flex tariff or a fixed price tariff?

I think @retrotecchie may just have got hold of the wrong end of the stick, but I'm sure we'll get to the bottom of this in time. @Andy65 gave you some good advice.

[retrotecchie]

@meldrewreborn

Might I suggest looking at your August through to October billing @chrisunitt - the full PDF versions rather than the abbreviated versions, and also any messages in your message box...look on the bills to see if it states what your monthly DD may have been increased to.

I don't think I have the wrong end of the stick as far as the calculations go, allowing for the price rises on 01 October.

How the payments and DD's are supposed to be processed by EON.Next is a completely separate issue, but you can't have your old DD dropped by £66 AND your credit of £66 to your account, because that would mean a net reduction of the money you need to pay of £132.

[retrotecchie]

@Beki_EONNext

Which is approximately what I was trying to explain.

Confusion may have happened by EON.Next deducting the grant from your October DD. This doesn't make a difference to your £ and p bottom line. But, it gives you one month of a very low payment, followed by subsequent higher payments.

It would have made more sense to apply the discount only to the higher direct debits in subsequent months, rather than 'discount' your October payment from it's old, lower amount. You won't pay any more or less, you'll still get the full £400 assistance, but by making everyone think a £100 DD is reduced to £34 rather than actually reducing your next 6 payments of £200 down to £134 and then having a £100 jump between October and subsequent payments, that Is why folks are getting in a pickle, I think.