Ofgem demand motion from vitality corporations over again billing

Electrical energy and fuel suppliers have been warned they are going to be fined in the event that they proceed to ship out payments to prospects for cash they don’t have any proper to gather.

The vitality regulator Ofgem advised BBC’s Cash Field that it’s writing to chief executives demanding to understand how many individuals have been despatched “again payments”.

Again billing is when prospects obtain new payments for vitality used longer than 12 months earlier than – a apply that was banned seven years in the past.

A senior boss at Ofgem, Tim Jarvis, advised the BBC he was shocked and dissatisfied after listening to a few of the circumstances the BBC has investigated.

Regardless of being banned in 2018, again billing remains to be occurring to hundreds, if not tens of hundreds, of individuals.

Suppliers have apologised however say tens of tens of millions of payments are despatched out every month. 

Earlier this week Power Secretary Ed Miliband wrote to the regulator urging it to “problem illegal again billing”.

Mr Jarvis mentioned he has now written to the chief executives of the large vitality suppliers demanding they discover out the true scale of the issue, including that the regulator won’t hesitate to high quality any firm discovered to be systematically breaking the foundations.

Residents Recommendation acquired 47,000 complaints about billing typically in 2023, rising to just about 60,000 in 2024.