The government has been accused of “lashing out” at energy retailers after naming and shaming those with low redemption rates of Energy Bills Support Scheme (EBSS) vouchers among their prepayment meter (PPM) customers.
The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has published figures revealing how much suppliers have distributed overall of the £400 payments as part of a government crackdown on the mistreatment of consumers.
Since the scheme’s launch in October, £5.7 billion has been provided to 99% of households in Great Britain.
For those on traditional PPMs, suppliers will send monthly vouchers via text, email or post after having previously contacted them to advise on how the discount will be applied.
Government figures however show that almost 30% of PPM vouchers have yet to be redeemed, with concerns about the impact this will have on vulnerable customers.
In a release on Monday morning (23 January) BEIS singled out Scottish Power, Good Energy and Utilita as having the fewest redemptions and urged them and others to “make sure they are doing all they can to ensure their customers with prepayment meters know what to look out for and exactly how to redeem their vouchers”.
BEIS figures show that 64% of vouchers delivered to Scottish Power’s traditional PPM customers were redeemed, falling to 63% of Good Energy’s vouchers and 61% of Utilita’s. For comparison, E Gas and Electricity is at the top with an 85% success rate.
Good Energy’s chief executive Nigel Pocklington disputed the figure presented by the government.
He said: “As a supplier with a relatively tiny proportion of prepayment customers, we have been able to go above and beyond in encouraging EBSS voucher redemption.
“We do not install traditional prepayment meters because they are not effective for supporting customers. For the around 350 legacy traditional PPM customers we do have, we have sent multiple email and letter reminders as well as made individual calls.
“Our own up to date figures show our customers’ redemption rates are around 70% — in line with the government’s average. We will continue doing everything we can to make sure customers don’t miss out on this vital support. We would like to see the government doing the same, rather than lashing out at suppliers for the shortcomings of their own scheme.”
A spokesperson for PPM specialist supplier Utilita said it has a small number of customers with traditional PAYG meters
They added: “Some have yet to redeem their EBSS vouchers – we estimate the figure is less than 2% of the national total – despite our best endeavours.
“The real problem here is one of old-fashioned traditional prepay compared to smart Pay As You Go+ of which we have 665,000 households – 95% of our Pay As You Go (PAYG) customers – with 1.3 million smart gas electricity meters.
“Here, we have successfully applied EBSS payments directly onto the meter on more than 2.6 million occasions, with 99.999% success.”
The spokesperson said the supplier is continuing to attempt to contact households with uncashed vouchers and that it will visit as many as possible.
“We will also continue to prioritise smart meter installs for traditional PAYG customers, so they can receive financial support direct to their meters in the future,” they added.
A spokesperson for Scottish Power said: “Energy Bill Support credits were issued to all prepayment accounts through a voucher or digital credit on smart meters.
“Our investigation of unclaimed credits identified vacant properties as one of the main reasons for money going unclaimed and we are updating our system to reflect these accounts. When this is factored into our reporting our redemption rate is 74%.”
Meanwhile the chief executive of industry trade body Energy UK, Emma Pinchbeck, said suppliers were “making repeated efforts” to ensure vouchers are delivered and to encourage customers to redeem them.
She also said: “There may be different reasons why some customers will have received their vouchers but not redeemed them yet so the industry has been working with partner outlets like Paypoint and Post Office, as well as consumer groups like Citizens Advice, to raise awareness.
“Suppliers are using the full range of communication channels to try and reach customers, including phone calls and home visits, reissuing vouchers when required and also taking on board feedback from the scheme to improve their effectiveness still further.”
She added: “The government knows from the billions of pounds of benefits that go unclaimed every year that it can unfortunately be hard to get assistance to those who need it most, but we remain fully committed to ensuring vouchers are delivered and redeemed and to make the support schemes work as successfully as possible.
“As well as working to reach any remaining households with support, we are calling on government to recognise the continued cost of living in the Spring Statement and maintain schemes to keep bills down at current levels until at least the summer.”
Business and energy secretary Grant Shapps said: “The public have a right to know which suppliers are leading the charge with getting this help to them, and that’s why I’m holding energy companies to account to make sure they are doing everything they can to support their customers at this time.
“We’re ramping up efforts so consumers know exactly what they need to do to redeem these vouchers, but we need suppliers to do much more and I want to see these numbers rise.”
It comes as Shapps recently wrote to energy suppliers calling on them to stop what the government calls “the harmful and anxiety inducing practice” of forcibly moving consumers over to PPMs “without taking every step to support consumers in difficulty”.
As such the government is asking suppliers to voluntarily commit to stopping the practice – a move backed by Ofgem.
Earlier today the regulator’s chief executive Jonathan Brearley said Ofgem is launching a review into self-disconnections, remote switching and forced installations, as well as the “checks and balances companies have around any decision to put a customer on a pre-payment meter”.
Brearley said that while his organisation supports the call for suppliers to stop the forced installations of PPMs unless “all options have been exhausted”, he said that Ofgem does not have the legal power to do this.
“Finally – we will continue to look at the rules around mandatory move to pre-payment meters, when a court warrant can be applied for and the steps that need to be taken first. We encourage suppliers to heed the call of the secretary of state to be fully transparent with their data around pre-payment meter warrants,” he added.