Ofgem billing rules confuse consumers, says SSE

Energy supplier SSE has told the Competition and Markets Authority investigation that Ofgem rules prescribing how information is presented on bills is confusing customers.

SSE said it had “concerns” on the degree of prescription the regulation provides, and felt “it should be up to suppliers to present information in a way that their customers found most helpful.”

SSE said providers were in a better position than Ofgem to listen to their customers and find out how they wanted to be communicated with, and that customers had told it that they found the current layout of bills confusing.

Following Ofgem reforms to billing in April 2014 suppliers are obliged to provide information designed to help consumers manage their energy, such as a projection of each consumer’s personal usage on bills.  A consumer must also be informed of cheaper tariffs that are provided by their supplier to help them choose the cheapest deal.

While SSE said agrees with Ofgem that “customers should be provided with clear and simple information that would allow them to make informed decisions”, it said that current regulations were resulting in “cluttered bills that consumers found difficult to understand.”

SSE says that regulation’s role should instead be to set the minimum amount of information that should be included, and leave the design of the bill to each supplier.

It said it was working on designing a simpler version.