What did we do wrong?

Occasionally, we deal with customers who haven’t paid their energy bills over a long period of time. Our team will do everything they can to contact these customers to understand why they haven’t paid, and to help them reach an agreement to pay for their usage and their bills in the future. If we can’t get hold of them to do this, it may be necessary to obtain legal permission from the Courts to install a prepayment meter at their property. 

We do this so that customers are prevented from getting further into debt and this action is only ever taken as a last resort. As a supplier, we have thorough processes in place to agree alternative arrangements, such as payment plans set at an affordable level for those customers who may be struggling to pay for their energy usage.

We’ve always had these processes in place but we regret that in a number of cases between 2013 and 2019, some customers didn’t receive the full service they should have. This meant that those customers had prepayment meters installed at their properties when in hindsight, more could have been done to avoid that outcome. Ofgem identified some instances of us failing these customers, all of which only happened during this limited period of time.
 

What have we done since?

As a responsible energy supplier, we’ve always had processes in place to help customers if they struggle with their bills. Since Ofgem opened their investigation, we’ve taken steps to update our payment collections process and expand our specialist Payment Solutions Team, whose focus is serving customers with arrears on their accounts and who may be struggling to pay their bills. 

Ofgem has acknowledged that as of December 2019, our processes for dealing with these customers had improved and any potential gaps had been closed. We also took steps to go through the accounts of those customers who were impacted to individually check their circumstances, making sure they received the full service they were entitled to. We’re sorry that these customers were let down at the time. 

We’re fully committed to all of our customers regardless of their circumstances, and we make frequent contact with any customer who’s struggling to pay for their energy usage. Our Payment Solutions Team is on hand to work with those customers to tailor a solution to their needs and circumstances. UW was also a founding signatory of Energy UK’s Vulnerability Commitment which launched in December 2020. This bolsters our existing licensing commitments to vulnerable customers as well as committing the business to go beyond this to help those customers who need it the most.