Dame Clare Moriarty, Chief Executive of Citizens Advice responds to the NAO report on the energy supplier market.
“Today’s findings underline serious failures by Ofgem which Citizens Advice has repeatedly sounded the alarm on.
“It’s totally unacceptable that suppliers entered the market without proper checks and that customers were landed with a multi-billion pound bill as a result.
“Ofgem has started to beef up its rules; it now needs to make sure companies stick to them.
“The government must also play its part in protecting customers when their supplier collapses.
That means overhauling the system to reduce the costs from future failures and end harsh debt collection practices from administrators.”
Background:
In its 2021 Market Meltdown report, Citizens Advice showed supplier failures since Aug 2021 would cost consumers around £94 per customer from 2022. It also showed customers of failed suppliers pay for energy market turbulence with billing delays, confusion and lost debt protections.
Notes to editors