Citizens Advice, in its role as the official consumer watchdog for energy, has responded to Ofgem proposals on new financial checks and tests for existing suppliers.
Gillian Guy, Chief Executive of Citizens Advice, said:
“This announcement looks like good news for energy customers. Ofgem’s proposals should limit the costs to consumers of failed suppliers, as well as delivering better consumer protections. Citizens Advice has repeatedly raised concerns about these problems and the regulator’s positive action is welcome.
“We have seen a number of cases where customers in debt to failed suppliers were subjected to aggressive debt collection by administrators who were not bound by Ofgem rules. Stopping this from happening will reduce the unnecessary stress and pressure placed on affected customers.
”New requirements to protect customers’ credit balances should go some way to limiting the costs left behind when firms collapse. Our research estimates that recent supplier failures led to an additional £172 million being added to bills. Most of these costs arose from companies leaving behind unpaid industry bills for renewable schemes.
“The government should legislate to require suppliers make these payments more regularly, and further limit the costs to consumers when these companies fail”.
Background
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£172 million figure taken from Citizens Advice research (Picking up the Pieces June 2019)
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The Citizens Advice energy star star rating helps people make a more informed choice of supplier. The ratings appear as part of Citizens Advice energy price comparison tool, to enable people to take customer service into account when choosing their energy supplier.