Afternoon @Kaye and a warm welcome to the OVO Forum community.
This sounds like it’s been a tough time for you, and I hope I can give you some helpful information here. I’ll include links to handy Forum articles too.
Firstly, I’d recommend signing up to the Priority Services Register, as you’ve mentioned vulnerabilities. This is a free service with numerous benefits, including a phone call from the National Grid to let you know about planned power outages. They’ll also look to get your property back on supply with priority, should there be a power cut in your area. You can find out more, and sign up here.
Secondly, if the meters aren’t being read then I’d highly recommend booking a free smart meter appointment. If you get smart meters installed, they’ll send your readings to us automatically, so your bills will always be accurate. If you haven’t been sending us reads then your bills will currently be estimated, so the debt balance may not be correct. You can find out more about smart meters, and book an appointment here.
If you’re receiving Collections notices then it may be your payment plan has expired. If you require a new payment plan agreement then we can set this up for you. You can find the Collections and payment plan information on our website here (this article also includes other helpful information about charities and organisations that can help you, as well as available grants). Have a read, you should find it very helpful.
The most important thing you can do right now is get the smart meter appointment booked in, so that a reading is taken from your current meters, and so that you’ll be billed to actual readings going forward. I’d also recommend asking your Landlord / Facilities Management to take meter readings for you asap, which you can then send to our Support Team. Please do this, as we can then see what your actual balance is, before setting up a payment plan based on the actual balance, and your personal requirements. You’ll find some more useful information here:
I hope this helps - please keep us updated as t how you’re getting on, and feel free to ask any further questions. There’s a lot of help and support available at OVO, as well as from third party companies. Most importantly, we need to get some meter readings, otherwise we won’t know what your true balance is.
