£66 government energy bills support scheme deducted from my OVO account balance not added?

Hi,

So I understand the concept that OVO put in the Energy Assistance credit, then remove it and put into the bank account (if you have a direct debit). I really don’t think however mine is working this way. 

Each month on my “payments” section I can see the Direct Debit that went in. Rather than there being the amount of Direct Debit + the £67 govt payment (then that additional £67 being removed and sent to my bank account) - it looks from the payment section for the last few months that the Direct Debit goes in, OVO then remove the amount of the govt payment £67 from the amount I have paid and then send that to my bank.

Essentially I lose £67 from the amount I have paid by DD and then that is sent to me, rather than me receiving £67 on top of my direct debit amount. 

Would love an explanation of this payment section please. 

If you look at your complete bill you should also see your energy use with a deduction of the same amount 

Hi can’t get through on the phone email or even via WhatsApp chat .. I’m wondering why I’ve still not received rebate payments for January February and march 2023 . 

Hi @Joeygent91 ,

Could you use this self-service tool real quick?

https://energy-support.ovoenergy.com .

It should tell you what you’ve received so far. Please post a screenshot of the results here as it might solve your problem.

It won’t let me login unfortunately even with the correct account number already tried this 

What’s your payment method @Joeygent91 ? The rebate gets paid slightly differently for direct debit/PAYG etc

Why is OVO  showing the Gov £67 coming out of my account but it does not show the amount going in so the refund is being taken from my running balance WHY ?

Because they also reduce your energy charges by the same amount

Hey @Joeygent91,

Sorry for the issues you’re having,

Our website explains the different ways our customers will receive the payment to their account. Unless you pay via direct debit, this payment will be added straight to your energy account. 

This topic might be helpful to you:

I know OVO is sending £67 back into your bank account if You paying direct debit. Why is it a HELP if they charge your account with this ammount and they give it back to you. Plus why my account has been CHARGED WITH THIS HELP twice? I really do not get it. 

Hi @Norbert Volenter ,

Try running your account through https://energy-support.ovoenergy.com .

It’s a Credit, not a charge. So your account would be in the same state it’d be in if the EBSS never happened.

Hi @Norbert Volenter . You should see that your charges have also been reduced by the same amount. Look at your complete bill and you should see this.

Well it should be. Before my DD account was on -£170 after the “support” it was -£237 the night before DD. This is not a support for me if they charge me and after send it back to my bank account. 

Hi. Each month the government payment has been taken off the account balance and then refunded to my bank account so I fully understand the way these payments are processed, but has anyone else had the money taken off your OVO balance twice this month? Only 1 payment into bank but 2 lots taken off??? 

Not this month @Kelly Elliott but it happened last month for me. 
If you check https://energy-support.ovoenergy.com/ you should see for each month. The various bank bits should catch up too

It looks as if it might be difficult to help you understand what’s going on, but I’ll give it a go. 

Have another look at your bills. It may be clearest on the monthly PDF you can download, e.g. from Billing history - OVO Energy . 

On the first page, you should see the government payment (‘Energy Bill Support Scheme’) on both sides of the page, in on the left and out (as a refund) on the right. This should tell you that the bottom line - the Closing balance - is exactly the same as if the EBSS payment hadn’t appeared there at all. That doesn’t mean that you’ve been conned, because the refund is now in your bank account for you to use as you see fit. If you want to use it to reduce your debt to OVO, you can easily do that at https://account.ovoenergy.com/payments/make-card-payment.

The payment is made through your electricity account because:

• The payment is intended to ease the pain of high energy prices.
• Just about every household in the country has an electricity account, so this seemed to be a straightforward way of delivering the grant automatically to those households. Because you pay by Direct Debit, OVO already have your bank details, making the process even simpler.
• Paying it into, and then out of, your electricity account shows on paper that OVO have done what the government asked them to do: pass on a grant from the government to you. The entries in your OVO account form part of the ‘audit trail’.
• By having the funds transferred to your bank account, you are left free to use them as you wish. The government doesn’t lay down what they are to be used for: some recipients will have used them to buy heating oil, others to help pay for their annual skiing holiday. It’s up to you to spend them wisely, to ‘help you cope’.

I’m sorry if this doesn’t make things clearer.

Thank you for your response. I just checked and it has been taken off my balance 7 times overall and there are only supposed to be 6 payments in total so does seem like a mistake. Has anyone else had this? 

You’ll probably need to check with OVO direct as no one has access to your account here. 
 

Customer Support  -  tel:03303035063

Webchat  -https://help.ovoenergy.com/#contact_us_container

If you need billing -

Accounts/Billing  -  tel:08000699831

Hey @Kelly Elliott,

Sorry for the issues you’re having,

Can you check your payments using this tool, and send us a screenshot of what you see?

Let’s get to the bottom of this!

Been looking at forum and i for one agree with those that say they are paying themselves. To put in simply FORGET about the £66 Govt Support as this is an in/out process. I’ve gone through all my bills since January 2022 but will only be quoting to OVO tomorrow from August 2022. Started off as credit £305.76.  Bills total Aug 22-Mar 23 £944.22.

Direct Debits £1159.00 + £305.76 credit = £1464.76.

So £1464.76 minus bills £944.22 = £520.54 Credit. Hope you’re all following this 😁

My bill for March £187.54 Credit .  Carry forward credit £520.54 minus £187.54 credit(March) = minus £333 Credit. Plus £67 i paid by card = £400 . Govt Support £66 x’s 2 + £67 x’s 4 = £400. )  Funny how it works out exactly !!! To reiterate FORGET Govt Support as in/out. To my reckoning i have received the payments but taken from my credit balance. Here we go, probably going to be a long drawn out discussion with OVO tomorrow !!!!😒😒

@DOG13 have you noticed on your bills where the VAT appears that for the months October to March theres a line saying  ‘energy bills support scheme -£67’ ? This reduces your charges each month.

Its OVO’s convoluted way of paying you..

Hi juliamc. Thanks for your response. YOU ARE RIGHT👍Taken me bloody hours of calculations. Obviously I bypassed their calculations and just took the bill amount. 🙄. Sorry forum members for boring you with my nonsense.

I’m so confused, why do I pay £168 a month and then get the government discount of £67 deducted from that amount and sent back to my bank. I thought I’d pay £168 and get £67 back but not from my own money, in theory I’m only paying £101 a month which isn’t enough. Where’s my government refund cash. On looking at others comments OVO replied that’s it’s credited to your account then deducted as a refund but I can’t see the credit anywhere 

If you look at the Charges Detail on your bill where you see the VAT the credit is paid in on the previous line - shown as Energy Bill Support Scheme. On the app look at See Details and scroll down to the VAT.

Great, found it thank you