Payment Difficulties
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PETERBOROUGH ENERGY POWERED BY OVO Payment difficulties Peterborough Energy c/o OVO www.peterboroughenergy.co.uk 1 Rivergate,Temple Quay, Bristol, BS1 6ED [email protected] 0800 408 6706 Lines are open Monday to Friday 8am-8pm and Saturday 9am-5pm PETERBOROUGH Peterborough Energy c/o OVO 1 Rivergate,Temple Quay, Bristol, BS1 6ED www.peterboroughenergy.co.uk ENERGY POWERED BY OVO 0800 408 6706 [email protected] Payment difficulties About this guide We want to help you keep your account in good shape. If you are finding it hard to pay your energy bills, let us know straight away and we will do our best to help you. If you do fall behind, there are lots of ways to get back on track, so here is what happens next. What it covers 1. Finding it hard to make payments 2. Repayment meters 3. The Fuel Direct scheme 4. Disconnecting your energy supply 5. How the debt process works 6. Reconnecting your energy supply 7. Priority Services Register (PSR) 8. Meter faults 9. If you lose your energy supply 10. If you want to change supplier but you still owe us money 11. Moving home 12. If you’ want to make a complaint 13. Useful addresses 14. Get in touch Peterborough Energy, Regeneration & Major Projects Dept. Licensed by OVO Energy Ltd, One Rivergate, Temple Quay, Bristol BS1 6ED Cheshire East Council, Westfields, Sandbach, Registered in England and Wales No. 06890795 Cheshire, CW11 1HZ VAT No. 100119879, OVO Energy is a voluntary FIT licensee PETERBOROUGH www.peterboroughenergy.co.uk 0800 408 6706 ENERGY [email protected] POWERED BY OVO Finding it hard to make payments If you are struggling to pay your Peterborough Energy bills, or you are worried that you might be about to, please give us a call as soon as possible. We would much rather you spoke to us — we’re here to help. Our friendly advisers will talk you through your options, based on your circumstances. Then we can work out a payment plan together that will help you keep any debt as low as possible. If your debt keeps on going up we might need to fit a repayment meter at your home. Repayment meters With a repayment meter in your home you pay for your energy as you use it. It’s a great way to help you budget, clear off any debt and make sure you don’t get any big bills. You do have to make sure there is always credit on the meter, though, or else it will disconnect itself and you will have to add credit to start getting your energy again. Of course, we will only fit a repayment meter if it’s safe and the right thing to do. We will talk about how much of your payments we will take towards clearing your debt. And if you are going to add credit with cash payments, we will tell you where you can do it close to your home. If we recommend you get a repayment meter fitted and you say no, we might have to disconnect your supply. The Fuel Direct Scheme If your account is in debt and you get Income Support, Pension Credit, Employment and Support Allowance or income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, you can ask your benefits office to pay us directly. This is called Fuel Direct and is run by the government’s Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). Fuel Direct covers what you are spending on energy at the moment and also pays off a bit of your debt every week. It’s a fixed amount (£3.65 per week at the moment – set on 12th November 2014). We also agree an amount with the DWP that we will take in future to stop your debt getting bigger. Disconnecting your energy supply We will always try to help you come up with a manageable way to pay for your energy, but if you don’t pay for your energy at all, we are legally allowed to cut off your supply. We will do our best to stop this happening. If we have to pay any charges for disconnecting or reconnecting your supply (like a locksmith’s fees, for example), we will add them to your account. If we do have to disconnect your gas or electricity, we will write to you and call you at every stage, to keep you up to date with what’s happening. We will also visit your home before disconnecting your energy, to give you information about reconnecting and the ways you can pay. If you still have debt on your account after we have disconnected you, we might take legal action to get the money back. Between October and March we won’t disconnect your energy if you are a pensioner living alone, or if you live with people of pensionable age, or aged under 18. We will also do our best not to disconnect your supply during these months if everyone in your home is disabled or chronically ill. If we use a debt collection agency, they will follow these rules, too. Peterborough Energy, Regeneration & Major Projects Dept. Licensed by OVO Energy Ltd, One Rivergate, Temple Quay, Bristol BS1 6ED Cheshire East Council, Westfields, Sandbach, Registered in England and Wales No. 06890795 Cheshire, CW11 1HZ VAT No. 100119879, OVO Energy is a voluntary FIT licensee PETERBOROUGH www.peterboroughenergy.co.uk 0800 408 6706 ENERGY [email protected] POWERED BY OVO How the debt process works If you are in debt, we will get in touch to ask why you have stopped making your Direct Debit payments. We will explain that you must have an active Direct Debit on the account and/or make a payment to clear your debt. If you are finding it hard to pay, give our Collections team a call and they will help you work out a payment plan. If you don’t respond, we will take the following steps in this order: 1. Try to collect your debt through our internal processes. 2. If that doesn’t work, we will ask a debt collection agency to take over. 3. If you still don’t respond, they will visit your home to talk about your debt, as a last try to sort things out. 4. The next step if this doesn’t work is to fit a repayment meter at your home. You will need to be at home at the time we arrange to fit it — if not, or if you don’t let the fitter in, we will get a court warrant to enter your home to fit it at another date or to disconnect your supply. (Legally, we don’t have to tell you this new date, only to let you know the date of the court warrant hearing.) 5. When our fitter gets to your property, they will decide whether they can fit a repayment meter or if they will have to disconnect your supply instead. 6. If we have to pay any costs to a debt collection agency, or for disconnecting or reconnecting your supply, we will add them to your account. This includes things like getting a court warrant, or for a locksmith to enter your home. This will make your debt bigger and affect your credit rating. Reconnecting your energy supply Pay off all your debt (including any charges) and we will reconnect your gas and/or electricity within one working day. You can also talk to us about setting up a payment plan, or fitting a repayment meter, to pay back your debt over a longer period of time. That way, we can get your supply up and running again right away. Priority Services Register If you are a pensioner, have a disability or are chronically ill, get in touch with us to register on our Priority Services Register (PSR). You can see full details of this in our PSR Code of Practice, which you will find on our website, or give us a call and chat to one of our friendly team about it. Peterborough Energy, Regeneration & Major Projects Dept. Licensed by OVO Energy Ltd, One Rivergate, Temple Quay, Bristol BS1 6ED Cheshire East Council, Westfields, Sandbach, Registered in England and Wales No. 06890795 Cheshire, CW11 1HZ VAT No. 100119879, OVO Energy is a voluntary FIT licensee PETERBOROUGH www.peterboroughenergy.co.uk 0800 408 6706 ENERGY [email protected] POWERED BY OVO If you lose your energy supply If you lose your supply, check whether there is any credit on your meter. If your credit has run out and your emergency credit hasn’t kicked in, the meter will disconnect itself. Please see our repayment meter guide on our website at www.peterboroughenergy.co.uk to find out how to reconnect your supply. If you are having problems paying for your electricity or gas and you find your meter is disconnecting itself all the time, get in touch and we can talk through changing your debt repayment level, and help you decide what to do next. We will come to read your meter and check it’s still working properly once every two years (this is the industry standard). If you don’t let us in, we may have to get a warrant to enter your home. If so, you may have to pay extra costs (like the cost of getting a warrant, locksmiths’ fees and solicitors’ fees). If you’ve got a standard meter and you have lost your energy supply, please get in touch with us straight away on 0800 408 6707.