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.
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.
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
Please check your Charges as well. I suspect you’ll see a line entry there that explains it, just like this example:
For the vulnerable people i know, a reduction in the direct debit would have been better. It would have reduced the risk of them being overdrawn on their bank account for a few days in the period between taking the direct debit and getting the £66.
That is a valid argument - thanks for putting it forward. However, it sounds as if these customers might be well advised to move the date of their DD, e.g. to the day after (a) payday.
As regards the ‘few days’, in my case it was less than 48 hours: DD on 10 October, credit to my bank account at dawn on 12 October. OMMV.
I’m one of those who would be struggling without the EBSS, so I’m afraid I can’t follow your admirable example.
Hey
Sorry for the issues you’re having.
It sounds like you’re PAYG with Boost? We have more information about how the Energy Bills Support Scheme payment will be paid to Boost customers in this similar thread:
If you haven’t received yours or are concerned you aren’t able to top up, please get in touch with Boost Support. As
Hope this helps.
I am super confused by this. I can see the £66 has been paid in my bank. However, £66 is added to my monthly bill… then surely this only cancels it out.
So what’s the point in this benefit?
Surely it should be paid in to our bank and then NOT added to our bills.
+3Hi
+1I am super confused by this. I can see the £66 has been paid in my bank. However, £66 is added to my monthly bill… then surely this only cancels it out.
So what’s the point in this benefit?
Surely it should be paid in to our bank and then NOT added to our bills.
It’s actually deducted from the bill, not added. -£66 means it was a credit, not a debit.
+3There are two separate entries: the Refund shown in the bill summary, and the Energy Bill Support Scheme deduction from your charges in the Details section.
Hey
That’s okay, we’ve seen a lot of confusion about the £66 payment on the Forum.
It should appear as a credit added to your account, and then refunded. A credit appears as -£66. If you take a look through the previous pages in this thread some of our community members have helpfully provided screenshots to show how it appears on their accounts.
If you don’t see the payment, can you please send a screenshot of your Online Account where it says charges in detail?
Let’s get to the bottom of this! 🙂
Hey
That’s okay, we’ve seen a lot of confusion about the £66 payment on the Forum.
It should appear as a credit added to your account, and then refunded. A credit appears as -£66. If you take a look through the previous pages in this thread some of our community members have helpfully provided screenshots to show how it appears on their accounts.
If you don’t see the payment, can you please send a screenshot of your Online Account where it says charges in detail?
Let’s get to the bottom of this! 🙂
Thank you.
Looking at my screenshot for October, this is how I read this…
I am £486.86 in debt
Now take off my direct debit of £385 and this amounts to £474.41 which is what my bill breakdown says.
I must be missing something or doing something wrong!?? But my closing balance has reduced by only £12, that can’t be right!
Ive not had anything to indicate a credit re the £66 from the government. 2 months running and they have refunded me from my own overpayment. !!!!!!!!!!!
+1Hi
If there really is a problem, you’ll need to contact the Support Team for help. We’re unable to make changes to your account here.
Could you show us your billing history please? We’ll see if we can figure this out.
+3You are correct. You have paid £385 into the account and two amounts have been deducted: the charges of £306.55 and the refund of £66, totalling £372.55.
So 385 - 372.55 = 12.45 ie the difference between your opening and closing debts.
Are you happy that the £66 has come into your account in the Charges Detail section ok?
Hi everyone.
I’d be interested to know if anyone else has noticed the glaring mistake (at best, or blatant robbery at worst) or tried to speak to OVO about the £66 energy assistance payments guaranteed by the UK Government?
I noticed that OVO had refunded £66 to my bank. But then also noticed they charged me £66 on my bill! This, surely, cancels out the £66 assistance completely, leaving customers no better off or assisted as promised at all.
Has anyone else seen this? Has anyone raised this with OVO and received any info as to what on earth is going on?
Would be interested to know / hear from anyone else thats seen this, or from OVO to explain themselves.
Thanks,
Matt.
+1The £66 was actually credited to your bill. If you see a line entry of -£66 Energy Bill Support Scheme, the money was knocked off the bill. Therefore, cancelling out the refund and putting your account back to how it should be.
You may pay it back in if you wish.
Hi Blastoise, I disagree. If it credited to my account then my balance at the time would have gone from circa £159 in credit, to circa £225 in credit.
But it was charged, not credited. so £159 Credit effectively became circa £97 in credit before monthly DD went in.
Yes, £66 was refunded to my bank, but that only makes up what you charged me, it’s never been an actual credit to my balance.
Why dont OVO just; a) refund £66 to bank after DD is paid or b) just credit each account with £66?
What you’ve actually done is resulted in net Zero assistance for everyone.
Also, nowhere on my account is there anything detailing a credit as per the example you’re showing. Nothing at all.
+1I don’t work for OVO myself and can’t access your account as I’m just a forum volunteer.
If you cannot find any traces of the credits, please let the Support Team know. They will be able to investigate and force the credits through if it didn’t deliver automatically.
OVO also initially started by refunding you after the DD came through. But people got impatient and started complaining about it taking too long, so OVO’s been working on tweaking it in the background.
It’s ultimately being done this way to provide full transparency about exactly what’s happening. I’ve had two payments through now without issue - but the government wants the money to land in your bank account. That fact, means OVO cannot just credit your account and leave it there.
+2Also, nowhere on my account is there anything detailing a credit as per the example you’re showing. Nothing at all.
Hi
Let's see if i can help at all?
What are the start and end dates of your last billing period?
+3
Ok, so the -£66 was CHARGED on the bill dated 24th October.
On 23rd October I was £159 IN CREDIT, the balance at the end of 24th October was £97 in credit, once some usages were also charged.
This to anyone who can add/subtract is a glaring LOSS of £66.
even if it was refunded to my bank, I’ve only broken even and not physically received the promised assistance of £66.
I am showing no detailed credit details anywhere, even if I was, the end result as it stands today, is still the same.
+2Ok, so the -£66 was CHARGED on the bill dated 24th October.
On 23rd October I was £159 IN CREDIT, the balance at the end of 24th October was £97 in credit, once some usages were also charged.
This to anyone who can add/subtract is a glaring LOSS of £66.
even if it was refunded to my bank, I’ve only broken even and not physically received the promised assistance of £66.
I am showing no detailed credit details anywhere, even if I was, the end result as it stands today, is still the same.
Hi
+2
As per this screen shot.
Thanks
Can you click on See details in the bill for the period 25 Sep 2022 to 24 Oct 2022.
Then post what you see. It may need a couple of screen shots.
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