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

  • October 7, 2022
  • 655 replies
  • 33608 views

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655 replies

Think I have  it now .   Thank u all for helping me get my head round it . 
 
Glad for the support 


BPLightlog
Super User
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  • Super User
  • March 21, 2023

Glad it helped


  • March 22, 2023

Hi,

 

I received a bill where refund deducted money instead of adding a money to ma balance.

Therefore I’m in debit instead of in credit

I’m looking forward for anybody from OVO to explain this.


BPLightlog
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  • Super User
  • March 22, 2023

The forum is mostly other customers @markS12 but here’s an explanation 

If you look at a complete bill, you will see that your energy costs have also been reduced by the same amount, hence your total charges being quite low.  OVO just decided to refund the support money rather than leave it in your account 


  • March 22, 2023

 

Further to that:

“Your energy bill will show your Energy Bill Support Scheme (EBSS) payment into your account and also show it being refunded to your bank if you pay by direct debit”

 

Well, I have checked my bank account and it wasn’t refunded yet

 

 

 


BPLightlog
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  • Super User
  • March 22, 2023

 

Further to that:

“Your energy bill will show your Energy Bill Support Scheme (EBSS) payment into your account and also show it being refunded to your bank if you pay by direct debit”

 

Well, I have checked my bank account and it wasn’t refunded yet

 

 

 

You can check status here https://energy-support.ovoenergy.com/

It normally take a few days to work its way through


  • March 22, 2023

It says paid

but will wait few days and see


I'm having the same problem. In December I had a credit balance of 561. 26. Since then I have used 383.01 in energy and paid 303 in DD. I should have a credit of 481.25. I only have a credit of 280.25. If I add the 3 government payments to that balance, I have a balance of 481.25! Ovo are giving my own money back by deducting it from my credit balance. None of the explanations I've read explain this anomaly. If the government had by passed Ovo and paid me directly, my credit balance would be 481.25! Explanation anyone? 

​​

 

 

 


juliamc
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  • March 22, 2023

@Mikemlreton check your Charges Detail, where you see the VAT (which is added to the charges) you should also see the £67 Energy Bill Support Scheme (which is a reduction on your charges). 
It’s not very obvious and it’s confusing loads of people who have asked the same question. 
Please let me know if you find it !


Jeffus
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  • March 25, 2023

It says paid

but will wait few days and see

Have you seen the payment now? 


  • March 26, 2023

Thank you Jeffus for asking.

 

I’ve just checked my bank account and yes, money appeared yesterday.


I've asked why my account has been debited and my bank account credited but told that is instead of extra costs.

That's crap as surely the government are paying for this, not OVO 

Why am I paying for it with no benefit to me 


juliamc
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  • April 1, 2023

@Russell1960 as I said in the previous post:

 check your Charges Detail, where you see the VAT (which is added to the charges) you should also see the £67 Energy Bill Support Scheme (which is a reduction on your charges). 
It’s not very obvious and it’s confusing loads of people who have asked the same question. 
Please let me know if you find it !


So I've got that but still being credited and debited the same so where's the benefit.

I work away from home for 2 weeks at a time and I'm worried about how much gas you think I'm using with thermostat set at below 10C.

I can't see any benefit to me 


juliamc
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  • April 1, 2023

Your charges are being reduced by the £67 each month. 


But then my account is being debited each month as well 


juliamc
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  • April 1, 2023

The money is being forwarded to your bank account 


Ok. Show me the benefits please on my account 


juliamc
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  • April 1, 2023

I am just a plain old customer @Russell1960 and I don’t have access to your account so I can’t show you or see anything on your account. I’m just saying that OVO pass the government money to you via a reduction on your charges then send that money to your bank. 


Firedog
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  • Super User
  • April 1, 2023

The balance on your OVO account is exactly the same as if the EBSS hadn’t existed - in on one side, out on the other. The difference is in your bank account, where instead of just seeing your Direct Debit going out, you see an OVO payment going in as well. You have £67 of extra tax-free Government money to spend as you like. That’s the benefit.

 


---- RESOLVED this is a confused (but correct) billing issue ...

I have just noticed that I have been being billed incorrectly since the government support scheme was introduced in October of last year.

The issue seems to be that the government support amount (£66, in my case) is regularly being applied to my bills, resulting in a £66 reduction (labelled ‘Energy Bill Support Scheme’).
However, this exact same amount is then being added to my bill, when calculating the balance (labelled as ‘Refunds’)!! So, in essence, I am not getting anything from the government support scheme.

Is anyone else getting this billing error?

I hope this is a genuine mistake, and not some manner of mass fraud.

I wonder if someone from Ovo  could cast some light on this?


BPLightlog
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  • April 2, 2023

Hi @ianhadling welcome to the customer forum. It’s mostly other customers here trying to help each other. 
In fact, you should see that your energy bill has been reduced by the same amount each month and so the money flows through - it’s just that OVO decided to pay this back as a refund confusing many people. You mention £66 .. that should have increased to £67 after the first couple of months of the scheme


juliamc
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  • April 2, 2023

@ianhadling about 50% of the posts on this forum are about this. There is no fraud or scandal. OVO reduce your charges by the £66 or £67 then pay that amount into your bank account as a refund. 


Thanks for that Julia

 

This is incredibly confusing, and seems to be a very convoluted way to apply the refund. 

 

 


juliamc
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  • Rank 20
  • April 2, 2023

I totally agree, because of the confusing way they’ve applied the government money it’s meant the phone lines have been hammered too.