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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

juliamc
Rank 20
Rank 20
March 13, 2023

@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..

Newcomer
March 14, 2023

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.

Newcomer
March 15, 2023

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 

juliamc
Rank 20
Rank 20
March 15, 2023

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.

Newcomer
March 15, 2023

Great, found it thank you

Newcomer
March 16, 2023

Hello, has anybody have experienced any issues with the rebate?

As far as I am concerned it should work with OVO adding the £66 to your OVO account and then deduct it and send a refund to your bank account.

 

However I went back to my bills prior the scheme kicked off.

My figures are as below

Aug-Sep 2022 (no energy scheme): OVO closing balance +£108.9

Sept-Oct

OVO opening balance +108.9

Total charges £25.22

Direct Debit £133

Refunds -£66

Closing balance +150.68

 

If they are adding the £66 to your balance as they say shouldn't my closing balance be £216.68?

 

It's the same for all the other months after this...my OVO balance has never been increased by £66 in order to justify that amount to be deducted from my balance.

 

Can somebody please advise?

 

 

BPLightlog
Super User
Super User
March 16, 2023

If you look at your total charges, they are low. You should find that the £66 or £67 has been also deducted from that. Meaning the your energy cost £66/67 less and that is then refunded to you

Bring me Sunshine ~ E&E {Solar PV, Battery Storage, Hybrid EV, ASHP and Home Assistant automation}
Newcomer
March 16, 2023

Thanks for your reply…

I still can't figure out why the balance is going down though…

As 

Opening balance 108.90 + direct debit of 133 = 241.90

At this point I got charged 25.22 (discount applied) therefore:

241.90-25.22= 216.68

Then why the refund gets deducted from my balance? It seems that they are considering me paying less than what I supposed to? As now I am in debit quite a lot and according to the total charge of every discounted bill and the amount I send every month, it shouldn't be the case 🤦‍♀️

Sorry, but I can't really get my head around it...🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

BPLightlog
Super User
Super User
March 16, 2023

The idea from OVO was to reduce your energy cost and refund the support payment to you. If you prefer of course, you can just pay it back into your account. 
I believe that they didn’t factor this into the direct debit as the scheme finishes this month

Bring me Sunshine ~ E&E {Solar PV, Battery Storage, Hybrid EV, ASHP and Home Assistant automation}
Newcomer
March 16, 2023

The problem is it looks confusing .. 

Starting balance 12 Feb £100.45 in credit

Total charges £248.09 out

Direct Debit 13 Feb £262.00 in

Refunds 14 Feb £67.00 out

Closing balance 11 Mar £47.36 in credit

100.45-47.36 = 53.09 which is 67.00-(262.00-248.09) .. confused .. in trying to make it transparent it has just been made confusing ..

So people look at balance start 100.45 and see they have paid 13.09 more than  owed .. so expect new balance to be 100.45 PLUS 13.09 .. instead they see it is less.