Repayment of Debt

Good evening

We have a debt with Ovo for approx £4,700 (due to various reasons, job loss, ill health, now unable to work).

I finally got brave enough to speak to a very nice lady at Ovo, who put our account on hold for 30 days, and suggested we try and find a grant to help. Nowhere seems to have one at the moment.

We went through our budget (Universal Credit, PIP, LCWRA and Carers Allowance), cut as many things as we could, and can afford just about, to pay £250 a month. We have cut down as much as possible on our electric use (old flat, old storage heating, no gas).

I set up a DD for this, but a few days later it was changed to over £1,100, which in no way can we afford, to I cancelled it, and paid it via the payment link in my online account. I have been getting phone calls every day from collections.

I have been talking on the online chat to customer services, as through their support system, if we put down a £240 deposit, we could pay off the usage and debt in 36 monthly payments of aprox £314 a month.

However, that is more than we have, so I have asked twice if there is any chance of it being spread over 48 months (I know someone who had his debt spread over 7 years). But they say no, and refer me to Stepchange, or Fuel Direct on UC.

Has anyone on here ever managed to get the repayment spread over 4 years or so (48 repayments)? As I can’t set up a DD for £250, they don’t accept Standing Orders as a payment plan, and so the calls and emails continue.

Many thanks for any advice!