Debt Help For Npower Bill?

[Scarlett]

My friend is struggling to pay a massive electricity/gas bill. She lives in the Northern Highlands so rarely gets a visit from the meter man! She was expecting one for ages and when he finally arrived the bill was something like £3000. She is now panicking because she is a single parent, on working tax and child credit, and has housing benefit. There is no way she can pay it, and they won't let her pay in installments as she is not on Job Seekers or Income Support. Is there anything she can do regarding writing the debt off through a debt help company? She struggles day to day so this debt will never be paid off. When I spoke to her she was in one room with a heater on and was freezing as she couldn't afford to turn the central heating on in the whole house. Thanks.

[ubasses]

Reading this, it looks like they have to agree to a repayment plan.
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/energy/energy-supply/get-help-paying-your-bills/struggling-to-pay-your-energy-bills/
If she visits the Citizens Advice they will probably talk to them on her behalf.

[Pigletion]

I would think Citizens Advice can help https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/energy/energy-supply/get-help-paying-your-bills/struggling-to-pay-your-energy-bills/

Also some advice from Which? http://www.which.co.uk/energy/saving-money/guides/how-to-save-on-your-energy-bill/if-you-cant-pay-your-energy-bill/

[Tuvok]

Was the reading correct?

[EDDIE51]

The power companies MUST give help in a case like this it is law!
The normal way they do it is to install a prepay meter, every time you put money on it some of the cash goes to pay off the debt the rest goes on electricity or gas. My daughter is in this position, she got a huge gas bill over £1,000 and had no way to pay it. Now she has a prepayment meter, every time she puts money on 25% is to pay off the debt, the rest goes on gas. Electricity do the same thing!

[Scarlett]

I think the bill was correct as they had not taken a reading for so long. When someone eventually came over she told him she wanted a meter and he was really surprised and pleased! So I hope she is getting a meter, and being able to pay it off that way would be really good.

[EDDIE51]

^ That is just like my daughter, they will put in a prepay meter and set it to take a % of what she puts into it for the debt. There are even rules about the maximum % they can take back for the debt ,I think it is 25%.

[trt]

When did she last pay them?

£3,000 is a hell of lot of electric & gas, how big is the house, and what kind of central heating?

[Prudie]

trt is asking what I was wondering. That's over 2 years in my house which is a big 4 bedroomed that has heating on 10 months of the year. Even if the meter isn't read they always do an estimate. Anyway too late for that now, she must have been worrying that she hasn't paid it for a very long time. Take the advice of asking CAB although I'd have thought Npower would be open to a plan solution.

[fiction-factory]

Maybe there has been a misreading- that definitely sounds like 2-3 years worth of energy and suggests the meter hasn't been read for maybe 5-6 years. If it is right it just shows the importance of taking regular readings and changing your usage accordingly if the bills are too high. I suspect she is also one of the many who have not been persuaded by all Martin Lewis's efforts , to shop around and save up to around £400 a year on bills.
So she should ask for a meter check and ask for a better tariff- and seek the repayments plans. If the company has failed to read the meter for maybe 6 years she could even ask for some of teh debt to be written off

[fiction-factory]

The problem witha prepayment meter though is it is usually the most expensive tariff

[scorpiojo]

Ofgem protections

Since 2007, Ofgem has secured a commitment from domestic energy suppliers to put a stop to customer back-billing for energy used more than 12 months ago, if the supplier was at fault for not sending a bill or billing incorrectly.

Some energy suppliers have developed their own policies to reflect the commitment. Others that are members of the energy supplier trade body, Energy UK, have developed a joint voluntary code of practice (the Energy UK Code of Practice for Accurate Bills) to ensure that their domestic customers do not suffer financially as a result of billing errors where the supplier is at fault.

[EDDIE51]

One further problem I see here. The Northern Highlands have few shops where you can top up a normal prepay meter. In this case getting a 'Smart Meter' could help. They have options to recover debt but you can do it via online payment without needing to find a shop.

[4candles]

'Ang on a mo. Surely any supplier will send out at least a quarterly bill, with an estimated reading if necessary, and chase it up if it wasn't paid.

Has there been some foul up somehow whereby she wasn't actually registered with any supplier for a long period?

[EDDIE51]

^ I'm thinking the same, it seems strange to say the least that both gas and electricity meters were not read for such a long time or an estimate sent.

[EDDIE51]

Npower debt helpline here
https://www.npower.com/home/help-and-support/meeting-your-needs/financial-help/
They do prepayment meters to recover the debt, but read the web site information, they may be able to write off a % of the debt as well!

[Davemano]

If she hadn't been registered with a supplier for a number of years, she must still be with her original supplier which I would suspect is npower, and that have allowed this charge to get out of control.

[Boto]

Did she not realise that she would have a bill and put some money aside? She should have received an estimated bill. Why should it be written off if she has used the gas/electricity?

[woofgang]

Boto, not sure how your judgemental attitude helps.

[themas]

We don't have the full story here. How much has she been paying & for how long? Did she get any estimated bills? How long has she been with NPower? Has she ever read the meters herself & given the figures to NPower? (If not, she should learn how to read them & do this regularly, & make sure she gets bills based on her readings.)

NPower had a terrible time a year or more ago when they introduced a new computer system, with many wrong or missed bills. Could she have been caught up in that? If so the bill is very likely wrong & they should write off at least a part of it.

If she has kept old bills she should be able to check them against the new one, which should give her some idea of whether this bill is wrong.

[zebo]

I thought that the energy companies were legally obliged to read the meter once a year, we have a self-read tariff but once a year I get an email saying they will be coming to read the meter.