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meccles
Rank 1
October 7, 2022
Solved

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

  • October 7, 2022
  • 645 replies
  • 34621 views

Can anyone explain what’s going on here?

Opening balance was £335, we used around £90 worth of electric/gas combined (£66 government payment was taken off this, hence the £22 charge), I paid £150 so by my reckoning the balance should have gone up by around £125.

It hasn’t though - they seem to have then deducted the £66 again.

Does anyone know why? Do I need to contact them or will it right itself?

Best answer by Blastoise186

Updated on 28/06/23 by Abby_OVO

 

This scheme is now closed.

 

How you will be awarded the £67 depends on how you pay. If you’re seeing a deduction, it’s because you pay by Direct Debit and the grant payment went into your OVO account and is then deducted from the account and refunded to your bank account. 

For all information on this topic please see the website page Energy Bills Support Scheme or this previous response:

 

 

If you pay by direct debit and have seen the credit go to your OVO account, this payment will be transferred into your bank account. 

 

The payment will be made 3-5 working days after the direct debit has cleared. This will happen automatically and you don’t need to do anything. 

 

All customers who pay this way will receive their refund into their bank accounts within 3-5 days of their direct debit date. For example, if your direct debit is the 15th of the month, it’ll be 3-5 days after this. 

 

For anyone that pays on demand, their payment will be made directly to their OVO account. 

 

 

If you pay by Direct Debit

You’ll receive your discount as a refund. This means you’ll carry on paying your full Direct Debit amount. Once the Direct Debit payment has cleared, we’ll refund the monthly discount amount to your bank account shortly after. If you cancel your Direct Debit, or your payment fails, there may be a delay in applying the discount to your account.

You’ll get your discount every month, even if you don’t get monthly statements. You'll see confirmation of the discount on your next statement. 

 

If you pay when you get your bill

You’ll receive your monthly discount as a credit to your energy account in the first week of each month. You’ll see this on your monthly bills from October. 

We’ll add the discount to your energy account every month, even if you don’t get monthly bills. You'll see confirmation of the discount on your next bill. 

For example, if you receive your bills on the 15th of the month, we’ll add your discount in the 1st week of the month, starting in October, so you’ll see confirmation of this on your bill dated 15 October.

 

Hey @meccles !

Please check your Charges as well. I suspect you’ll see a line entry there that explains it, just like this example:

 

645 replies

Show previous replies
Blastoise186
Super User
Blastoise186Super User
Super User
March 7, 2023

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.

Securing energy by zapping security bugs... For that is The Blastoise Way! Remember, I'm just like you - AI Powered Evil Geniuses aren't Staff!
BPLightlog
Super User
BPLightlogSuper User
Super User
March 7, 2023

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.

 

Bring me Sunshine ~ E&E {Solar PV, Battery Storage, Hybrid EV, ASHP and Home Assistant automation}
Newcomer
Norbert Volenter
Newcomer
March 7, 2023

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.

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. 

Newcomer
Kelly Elliott
Newcomer
March 8, 2023

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??? 

BPLightlog
Super User
BPLightlogSuper User
Super User
March 8, 2023

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

Bring me Sunshine ~ E&E {Solar PV, Battery Storage, Hybrid EV, ASHP and Home Assistant automation}
Firedog
Super User
FiredogSuper User
Super User
March 8, 2023

I then get a Government help payment of £67 to help me cope, WRONG !!!, 

 

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.

Noel | I have no official status; I'm just a volunteer who comes here to help other customers. My gear: Aclara SGM 1416-B Electricity-only E7 meter; Chameleon IHD3-PPMID-AAA | It may look as if I know what I’m talking about, but don’t let that fool you. |
Newcomer
Kelly Elliott
Newcomer
March 9, 2023

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? 

BPLightlog
Super User
BPLightlogSuper User
Super User
March 9, 2023

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

Bring me Sunshine ~ E&E {Solar PV, Battery Storage, Hybrid EV, ASHP and Home Assistant automation}
    Emmanuelle_OVO
    Retired Moderator
    Emmanuelle_OVO
    Retired Moderator
    March 10, 2023

    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!

    Renewable Energy? Big Fan.
    Newcomer
    DOG13
    Newcomer
    March 13, 2023

    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 !!!!😒😒

    Show more replies
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