Warm Home Discount is late- Got a letter saying it would be paid in November?

Hi @BennyM 

Sorry to hear that.

I am just a customer like you

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Hi Emmanuelle,

Thanks for replying. You've given me more information about this in one answer than I've had in the last 2 weeks of phone calls, e-mails and webchats with OVO Energy! I'll wait another few days or a week to see if I hear anything.

Thanks again!

Hi Emmanuelle,

I have just had a chat with someone from the Warm Home Discount team, and I am yet again being told to ‘wait a few days’. It seems hard to believe that an organisation the size of yours can take so long to sort out what seems like a fairly straightforward admin/accounting issue.

Seems much more like being fobbed off with feeble excuses.

I’d like to let everyone know of an update I’ve had today. I’ve spent weeks on phone calls and on web chats to OVO Energy, and I’ev excuse after excuse about why my WHD payment is late, each one a different reason. 

Yesterday I managed to speak to someone in the OVO complaints team. I was told that the DWP hadn’t yet paid OVO the money to pay my WHD yet and that I had to contact the DWP. However, I couldn’t even speak to anyone at the DWP because their automated system didn’t ive me the option to do so. 

I phoned the OVO complaints team back today and I found out some very insteresting information. I was told that the DWP had in fact paid my WHD to OVO on 27 October 2023, and there is no  reason at all why I wasn’t paid by 15 November 2023. The person I spoke to today did say OVO had a back log to work through and only said that “computer problems” caused the back log. 

Although I suspected all the different excuses were just made up, incuding the one given by Emmanuelle on this thread, I now have confirmation that they were all just lies told to me to get me off the phone call or web chat. It is disgusting that OVO is treating it’s vulnerable customers in this way, especially when SSE (who OVO bought over) could pay the WHD every single year within 2 weeks of applying for it. 

If OVO are going to lie to customers, perhaps they should tell all their staff the same lie and stick to it. By giving me one excuse after another, it wasn’t hard to work out that OVO are just holding on to the WHD money that the government has paid them. I’m sure it’s building up plenty of interest in OVO’s bank account.

Actually, OVO has until March 2024 to get all the WHD payments out, so arguably yours isn’t “late” yet. It’s only if they don’t get them out by then that it’s “late”.

There was a recent delay caused by a VAT issue. This has been fixed and OVO is catching up with the queue.

You just need to hang in there - the payments are on the way.

I realise that the scheme runs until March 2024, but I understood that this was the government’s deadline to make the payments. If OVO have already received my WHD from the government, then there’s no reason for OVO to hold onto it until March 2024, especially when it was OVO who told me I’d receive it by 15 November in the first place. So it is late going by OVO’s own timescale to me.

As for the VAT issue, I did get told this by Emmanuelle on this thread, but it’s only one of many different excuses I’ve been told over the last 2 months. I’ve been told that:

1. The government hasn’t paid the money to OVO.
2. OVO didn’t know how to pay the WHD to people like me with tradtitional pre-payment meters and were trying to work out how to do so.
3. The VAT issue you mention.
4. OVO had “computer problems.”

I was even told on more than one occasion that the money was on it’s way and I’d receive it when I topped up within the next few days. Of course, I never did receive it. 

It’s just really frustrating to come up against this with OVO, especially when SSE never had any VAT problems or any of the other excuses, and they were always able to pay the WHD within 2-3 weeks of my appyling for it. You wouldn’t think that OVO, having bought SSE over, could be so completely incompetent.

I appreciate you taking the time to reassure me, but it’s very difficult to hang in there when I’m sitting at home not able to turn on my heating and I find out that OVO have had my payment since 27 October. 

I’m sorry to hear that you’re having the same problem with OVO not paying your Warm Home Discount. I’ve contacted my local MSP about it so maybe that will help. I’ve also made a complaint but although OVO have acknowledged my complaint and given me a case reference number, I haven’t been assigned a case handler yet, more than 2 weeks later. So when I phone the complaints team, I keep being told nobody can help until I am assigned a case handler. I was told by a member of the complaints team yesterday that nobody has been assigned yet, but the same staff member who told me today that OVO had received the money from the DWP to pay my WHD on 27 October, also told me that a case handler had been assigned yesterday. It just one lie after another with OVO, and their CEO really ought to resign over this because he is clearly not fit to run an energy company.

Hey @Susan54 and @BennyM,

Sorry you’ve not had clear advice given to you, 

Blastoise has given some helpful advice here. If you’re a customer who needs to get in touch with the government we'll apply discounts to accounts we're told about before March 2024. For customers that are automatically matched we’ll aim to get payments to these customers by the end of December. 

Taken from our guide about Warm Home Discount on the website: 

Once we're told by the Government to apply your discount, we'll aim to do this within 30 days unless an exception applies. An exception could be that we weren’t your registered supplier on 13 August 2023. If this happens, we'll tell the Government and ask they give the discount to the correct supplier.

For automatically matched eligible customers

The Department of Work and Pensions should tells us to apply the discount to these customers between October 2023 and December 2023. We'll aim to apply the discount for these customers by the end of December 2023 or within 6 weeks of being told to by the Government.

For customers that need to get in touch with the Government

We should be told what discounts to apply between October 2023 and the end of March 2024.  We'll apply discounts to accounts we're told about before March 2024 or within 6 weeks of being informed.

However, if you’ve had a letter saying it was due by a certain date and it hasn’t arrived, the VAT issue might be apply to you:

We’re pausing Warm Home Discount (WHD) payments for now
 
What’s happened?

We’ve noticed an issue with the VAT applied to WHD transactions, so we’ve made a change to make sure VAT is being applied correctly.

What have we done to fix this?

We’ve temporarily paused WHD payments while we fix the issue. We’ve also created two new transactions which will replace the existing WHD transactions, which clearly describe how VAT is calculated. 
 
The payments will be applied at £142.86 with VAT calculated at 5%, which is an additional £7.14. The total payment customers will receive is £150. 
 
For Core Group (customers notified to us by the Department of Work and Pension as eligible) customers we’ll use the following transaction:

• £150 Warm Home Discount CG13 (£142.86 + £7.14 VAT)

For Broader Group (customers in Scotland who have applied to OVO for WHD) customers, we’ll use this transaction:

• £150 Warm Home Discount BG13 (£142.86 + £7.14 VAT)

The payment is applied prior to VAT being added to the bill, so the amount is added as £142.86 and then the VAT attributed is 5% at £7.14. For example:

 

The billing team will be going through affected accounts and resolving this issue, there is likely to be a delay due to the backlog of customers they’ll have to go through.

Hey @Pepsi 

Sorry to hear about this.

We don’t have access to accounts here at the Forum so we can’t know what’s happened here. If your dad has had a letter to say he should be receiving the Warm Home Discount, then I’d get in touch with the Support Team about this matter.

I am having continuous problems with Ovo. I can not get any consistent reply to our problems. I have had multiple calls- emails - web chats with them to no avail. 
 

The initial problem arose when my meter reading would not move, I reported multiple times with no help. 
Eventually I got a response that my meter needed to be changed. Turned out I was not migrated from SSE to Ovo. 
I have been assured my previous credit will be refunded, I was then fobbed off with a smaller amount. 
 

now I don’t have the warm discount credited although the email said  be by end of November. Now I’m told it will be by 31 March. 
 

. I need the refund and the discount to be able to pay for energy. 
 

I’m having absolutely no luck getting any help I’ve now come across the forum and don’t feel like I’m the only one now! 

It is very frustrating and feels like any complaint or request for information goes into a black hole. I hope someone will be able to give us some advice on this forum. Good luck! 

Hi @mrsparkles5481 @JDGP 

Sorry to hear you’re both still awaiting your Warm Home Discount payment.

I know there was an issue that did cause some delays, but we don’t have access to accounts here at the Forum so we’d suggest getting back in touch with the Support Team about this as they should be able to provide you with an updated timeframe.

I will be escalating to a formal complaint. As others have said here,the Support Team provide conflicting information EVERY time you contact them and the delay is completely unacceptable. I’d furthermore suggest compensation should this drag on any longer. 


My energy provider last year (I was with Utilita until I moved in January 2023 when my new home ‘s energy was provided by SSE) confirmed the WHD and fulfilled it within two weeks. This is substandard service from Ovo.