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

I’ve just checked my account and my £66 rebate from the government has been paid to me, but deducted from my credit balance. So basically they have taken the money from me (that I have already paid to create credit on my account) and paid my money back to me.  Has anyone else had this happen?

Look in charges in detail: it should have an entry Energy Bill Support Scheme -£66 It is a negative charge ie a payment into your account which has come from the government.

Is there a line entry on Charges in detail called Energy Bill Support Scheme anywhere in the current and last five billing cycles?

Please check the Charges in detail for the current and last five billing cycles. It’s probably in there somewhere! You’re after Energy Bill Support Scheme -£66

No, there is no mention of the government’s payment in of £66 only the refund to me which reduces the total credit on my account by £66. It seems that OVO has pocketed the government grant and just given me back £66 of my own money. 
Interestingly, the company computer wants me to suddenly increase my DD payments to cover a shortfall of £400

Have you clicked on See details ?

Yes and that is where I can see the credit balance of my OVO account reduced by “Refund -£66” but no government contribution to my account 

It looks like one of the things at play here is the Government’s belief that taxpayers’ money should as far as possible stay in taxpayers’ pockets. Electricity suppliers could simply have credited the subsidy to users’ accounts, but another factor affecting the decision not to do this is OFGEM’s misgivings about suppliers allowing users to build up large credit balances. This isn’t so surprising in view of the number of suppliers going broke last year and having to be bailed out. So OVO return the payment from your OVO account to the bank account your Direct Debit (DD) is paid from.

It thus has no effect on your OVO account or the DD calculation. If your DD isn’t expected to cover all your outgoings for the next year, ending the year with a zero balance, OVO will propose an increase. The subsidy being paid into your bank account will help to fund any increase in the DD. 

Hi John, exact same thing is showing on my account!!! I am frustrated because I do not want to have to spend hours on the phone to them. To think the government rebate is effectively being paid with our credit balances! 

Sorry you’ve missed my point. All OVO have done is return some of my money to me and then asked for an increased DD to cover the projected shortfall. They must have received £66 from the government for me but that £66 has not been credited to my OVO account.

Blaistoise, I click your link in your reply and I do not have any such line showing the £66…see pic for reference.

Long story short, Ovo’s live bill is incorrect and effectively shows your normal cost amount and then take off £66. This then has the effect of reducing your credit balance. They then fix it for the proper monthly bill whereby your credit balance is unaffected. Bit of a stupid system…

Thank you, idris01, that makes sense. I look forward to seeing my next bill due in a few days. I will also try to ignore the computer demand to increase my DD

Nor can we see your Direct Debit in Idris’ screenshot. Since the refund is dated 6 October, the £66 must have been credited to the account before that - on the date of the DD sometime between 1 and 6 October.

Could you please check the previous period’s Balance changes and Charges breakdown? You should see your DD in the former panel and a credit of £66 labelled Energy Bill Support Screen in the latter one.

Firedog, my previous period is correct, with the £66 shown. So it seems the live balance is simply incorrect. In my previously provided screenshot, my direct debit amount was added to my credit balance. Essentially, Ovo should fix the live balance portion otherwise lots more people will be concerned

@Firedog the government gave suppliers the choice.

1. Automatically refund the money to customers bank accounts

2. Automatically deduct the money from customers direct debit.

Suppliers are basically split. Some have picked option 1 (e.g. OVO). Some have picked option 2 (e.g. Octopus) 

See, there’s no £66 paid in, just the £66 paid out of my own money

See, there’s no £66 paid in, just the £66 paid out of my own money

Hi @adriangalilee you need to click on "see details" . Unfortunately the £66 paid in is in a different place on the bills. It is easy to miss. Look for a line that says Energy Bill Support Scheme

Hi Jeffus, I’ve tried the see details section. The government payment is definitely not there and the balance in my OVO account is £66 less than it should be

Hi @adriangalilee have you checked both billing period for the Energy Bill Support Scheme line?

4th September to 3rd October? 

4th October to 1st November? 

Unfortunately the credit and refund may not appear on the same bill

Yes I’ve looked everywhere for it and it’s not there

@adriangalilee interesting, could you post the extra details of both bills.

4th September to 3rd October

4th October to 1st November

The charges to 3rd October 97.84 are much lower than the charges to 1st November 188.70. This would normally be a good indication the 66 has been put on the 3rd October bill. 

Of course the difference in bills could be central heating or something else.

So lets check your usage etc if that is ok? 

My own account records the following details up to yesterday as shown on my iPad:

6 Oct - 31 Oct

summary

Balance changes

Opening balance +£858.66

Charge £57.97 out

Refunds -£66.00 out

Current balance +£734.69

A minus refund is a credit and £66 was paid into my bank account on 7th October.  But, in simple terms with an approximate balance of £860 at the start of the period and a consumption of about £60 then the end balance should be around £800, not £66 less than that as appears to be the case.    Like others, it appears to be £66 short.

 I’ve written to the complaints email address three times asking for clarification without getting a reply so far.  

Paul

Oh, for reference, the previous period shows the following:

Your balance

Note also that my direct debit, taken on 3rd of the month has been increased since and I’ve twice in September been asked for further increases in my DD.   I increased it by 50% several months ago to build up this higher balance in the knowledge that a price increase was coming.   I believe I’m owed £66 and that would help in not having to increase it further 

Hi @Ovo Energy forum

Looking at this it does look like you may already have the £66 put in your account. 

The total charges above for the month are only £29.87. So it looks like the the £66 may have been added to reduce the charges. 

None of us have access to your bills so we can't be sure either way. 

Look at the full details of the above bill and post a screen shot if you can.

Unfortunately the Energy Bill Support Scheme amount doesn't appear as a line item on the summary you have posted, it would have been easier if it did.

If you post a  screen shot of your full bill we can have a look if it would help.